Columns

1. Choice Based Credit System will corrode Indian education

2. What Make in India can learn from Malaysian economy

3. What NJAC verdict means for the common man

4. Why it's important to educate a doctor's heart

5. How our students can contribute to Indian economy instead of US

6. Modi's $1 million grant for Malaysian Indian students is a small step

7. Why Ambedkar's 'Grammar of Anarchy' speech resonates even in today's India

8. Why your soft drink should cost more

9. A 20-minute speech was all Vajpayee needed to win over Odisha

10. How an Odisha medical college row tied 124 students in a knot

                                                     

1. Why Prevention Is Better Than Prohibition

2.Why India Needs To Take A Cue From The New US Dietary Guidelines

 

1. Will the ‘Maharaja’ Ever Descend from his (white) Elephant?

2. Sec 124 (A) of IPC is an anachronism in a modern democracy

3. A Start-up’s Recipe for ‘Baba-dom’

1. A Practical Solution to a Moral Quandary

2. Electoral Reforms – a Much Needed Shot in the Arm

3. India’s security relationships in Indian Ocean region

4. Bolstering military abilities in Indian Ocean Region

1. The Overlooked Narrative of Palliative Care: Was Aruna Shanbaug Lucky?

2. Higher Education: Protracted Agonies of Unmet Demands

1. A Few God’s Men

The Art of Gifting

The simple thought behind giving someone a gift, other than expressing some kind of feeling, is the desire to receive something in return. That is how humans are wired. Come festive season, or wedding season, the whole process of gifting which involves thinking, making an effort to buy and finally gifting goes into full swing.

An interesting article by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, executive editor of Mint, embarked on information asymmetry, that is a skewed information between the gifter and the receiver, making the whole process complex. He cites the example of a child who would say upfront what she needs and thus making gifting easier whereas in case of an adult lack of communication makes the process of gifting tricky.

I have thus tried to make a matrix to categorize gifts into four groups based on its quality when seen with reference to information asymmetry. Here the quality of gift is as perceived by the receiver.

Category 1: Poorly informed & Good quality: When one is not aware of the like and dislike but is ready to spend a big sum, any safe gift which is costly is appealing. Occurs usually when subordinates plan to gift new bosses.
The receiver acts on the need. If it is not required, and given the quality it actually then gets passed on to close relatives and friends.

Category 2: Well informed & Good quality: Those are the cherished gifts. Those are ones which one keeps. The relationship booster kind of gifts. Its just ideal.

Category 3: Well informed & Poor quality:  Despite knowing the choice of the receiver one choosing a sub optimal gift is a signal of reluctance. One then is perhaps acting out of compulsion. The multitude of office colleagues, whom one doesn't share great relation with yet is bound by official good conduct fall in this category.
The receiver searches for people to pass it on to. Most often, the house help are the victims.

Category 4: Poorly informed & Poor quality: I call them the Soan Papdi gifter. Not knowing what to gift and not trying to think much about it leads to such a situation.
These are quickly abandoned by the receiver.

It is difficult to give an ideal gift for there exists information asymmetry. Studies have shown that millions of dollars in US are spent on giving gifts that are not appreciated by the receiver, The situation is definitely similar in India. A little effort to think about what to gift, and to be more pragmatic in gifting would go a long way in the art of gifting. 

3 X 3 things on 1st Constitution Day

 

The 1st Constitution Day is being celebrated today on 26th November, 2015. It is, like a few official mails would want me to believe, not the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar. Ambedkar was born on April 14. The Constitution was adopted on this day in 1949. It is a welcome step to to celebrate Constitution Day, regardless of the times we live in, for in the Constitution lies the leveler, the law, the script of destiny that was bequeathed upon the people of India.

3 sets of 3 things each that i wish to make a mention on this day are:
1. Three issues that framers of Constitution had on their mind
2. Three warnings of Dr B R Ambedkar vis a vis democracy in India
3. Three to-do things for

Three issues:
It is imperative to understand the throes the newly formed country was in to understand what has gone into the thick book of Indian constitution.
i) National unity was foremost in the minds of the drafting committee for India strictly was many nations in a nation. Nationality could not be defined in absolute terms, or as the West used to define it. It was necessary thus to embark on ideals that would hold the vast country together.
ii) Social uplift: India in 1947 was a poor country with high rates of illiteracy, poverty, destitution and mired in social evils. The constitution took it upon the state to address these issues. There lay a fundamental difference between American and Indian Constitution. More on that later.
iii) Foreign Policy: It was an important matter for the framers to view India, the newly formed country in the global picture. A lot of statutes thus dealt with this future worldview.

Three warnings:
In the now famous 'grammar of anarchy' speech, Dr Ambedkar had three warnings for independent India which could undermine democracy. These warnings hold good to this day.
i) Undemocratic ways of achieving social and economic objectives. He said bloody ways of revolution was no way to achieve such objectives. However the anarchy has continued unabated in independent India.
ii) Political bhakti: He warned against hero-worship in politics which he said could lead to dictatorship. Indian political history and present is replete with such instances.
iii) Social democracy: Dr Ambedkar stressed on the trinity of liberalism, equality and fraternity as necessary for social democracy which in turn is a bedrock for political democracy. Each component is incomplete without others. Though a work in progress, India has seen lack of components of the trinity.

Three to-do things:
i) Civics books at school introduce the young to Indian Constitution but only superficially. The engagement needs to continue irrespective of choice of vocation into adulthood.
ii) Neutral forums must be created, or sought where debate on provisions of constitution could be held. For the Constitution was not made binding to every generation. That would be sign of a healthy civil society which can let its concerns made known to the powers that be.
iii) Equally important is to hold to the letters the institutions that the Constitution has given. Only then would the Idea of India be healthy for all.

Happy 1st Constitution Day!

A B(ri)eef Story

I have narrated this story umpteen number of times, but had never penned it.
The predominant debate in the country these days, makes me write it.
Thirteen years back, in the July of 2002, few boys from different parts of the country converged on the 'cosmopolitan', as it was liked to be called then, Bangalore. The purpose was higher education, graduation.
Where is beef in the story?
Hold your horses...
So after the mandatory orientation, lasting a few days and several events, the college decided to take the 'new kids' out into the city so that they could buy books! or anything else, or whatever.
So a big bus landed one fine Sunday at the hostel door and packed teenagers, bubbling with enthusiasm, dressed in their best, apprehensive.
The bus dropped us at 'State Bank of Mysore'.
Those familiar with Bangalore will understand, for others, its just another place where the market is sub standard, the traffic is busy, the locality unclean.
but yeah, books, there adjoining is Avenue Road, where one gets new and second hand books. or that is what we had been told.
So, we alighted at SBM and were led to the 'sub standard' market by a guy from Asansol who wanted to buy 'Gucci' jeans.
That is an interesting story, but more on that later.
So after an hour the big group, as expected now, unexpected then, dispersed into smaller groups.
My group consisted of just two people, so we cannot exactly call it a group.
Those were the days of initial forging of friendships and the one with me, Bijay, was a foodie.
Wandering the streets for a while we felt hungry and started walking down Avenue Road in search of some good food.
Good here would indicate non-vegetarian.
A little digression before we go to the meaty part of the story.
I belong to a Brahmin family in the eastern state (yes there is an east too, India is not North and South and North-East) of Odisha and Odia Brahmins do consume non vegetarian food, and quite voraciously I might add.
Ok so back to the story.
After searching for quite some time, hunger level rising like a tide, we saw some delicious cooking happening in a small hotel on the left hand side of the road.
Happy to have found a place, Bijay and me walked in.
While walking into the sitting area, we could see some meat being fried on a big hot plate, some barbeque kind of thing happening and it all was salivating to look at.
We sat at the table and saw people around us consuming what we could clearly guess as Biriyani.
Next what happened was baffling.
The uninterested waiter arrived a minute later.
We ordered two Chicken Biriyanis.
The waiter left without writing a thing on his notebook. He did not even acknowledge the order.
Both of us were confused.
Did he not understand Hindi or what was the matter we thought for a while.
And then couple of guys in the table beside explained to us the matter.
very politely they told us 'Actually here you don't get chicken, only beef'
We could not believe our ears. None of us had been to any restaurant in Odisha, and we had to many between both of us, which served beef.
We reconfirmed with the good samaritans. No chicken, only beef it was.
In no time did we dash out of the hotel, viewing that what looked delicious few moment back in utter disdain.
So what if the waiter would have just brought the Biriyani? What if the fellow eaters would not bother to tell us?
And why the disdain?
That answer is easy. We have been conditioned to see beef as something that is holy and not to be consumed. Plus the conditioning that it is consumed by a certain section of society who are 'different' 'inferior' 'unholy' or other such attributes.
The conditioning is deep. Its quite not possible to shake it off. But then the conditioning, the acquiring, the choice is personal, absolutely personal.
There is another small story regarding beef and Bangalore.
Two Bengali guys, who happened to be our good friends and roommates during graduation, used to describe the  beef delicacies they regularly had in Calcutta.
Though few of us would squirm at the statement, chide with a 'chi, chi', it was adequately clear and now when i think back, very rightly so, that food is a personal choice.
Apart than the legality, the constitutionality of it, it is just a personal choice.
That was a brief story involving beef.
PS: As a biochemist I have my scientific take on meat as protein, its desired and undesired effect, but that's for another post.

Nuts & Bolts of Poetry Writing

  Nuts and Bolts of Poetry Writing

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found its words” – Robert Frost.

How not poetic is the title, that reads puts nuts and bolts, those steel, heavy, lustreless, dabbled in black grease things with something as beauteous, as soft, as sophisticated, as classy a thing like poetry! Well, if we separate the bulk of poetry that is written for self consumption, or say consumption of those unsuspecting room-mates or the doe-eyed lover, what remains is pieces of art that have nuts and bolts which work together, with an intent, towards producing ‘good poetry’.

For most of us introduction to poetry occurs in elementary school. Some loved them others did not. I loved poetry. The ability to say so many things, having multiple layers of narratives, in only a few words, often craftily used, intrigued me. Then the rhyming of those words, more often than not in those poems in the school textbook added to the lyrical beauty.  A few lines had the power to take you from the uniform riddled classroom with wooden benches and desks to just about anywhere and transform the mood to just about anything. And it was that power of poetry that was alluring.

And that ushering into the world of poetry was a lovely experience for regulators (ICSE, CBSE, etc) did a good job recommending books that had Eliot to Keats to Tagore to Ezekiel. And they covered nature, love, war, pain, mirth and scores of emotions.

‘On the Grasshopper and the Cricket’ by John Keats (CBSE Class 8)

But I often thought why someone would absolutely dread such a lovely form of expression. Why would someone abhor attending an English poetry class? Among many, notwithstanding few that had to do with disdain for the teacher or timing of the poetry class, the generic one I think has been the difficulty to ‘interpret’ the abstract, which however is the staple examination question.

The appreciation of poetry got lost in the curricular requirement. The curricular requirement since could be met by the innumerable ‘guide books’, did not incentivize deep thought, analysis, critical appreciation and understanding.

A man's destination is his own village,

His own fire, and his wife's cooking;

To sit in front of his own door at sunset

And see his grandson, and his neighbour's grandson

Playing in the dust together.

Scarred but secure, he has many memories

Which return at the hour of conversation,

(The warm or the cool hour, according to the climate)

Of foreign men, who fought in foreign places,

Foreign to each other.

A man's destination is not his destiny,

Every country is home to one man

And exile to another. Where a man dies bravely

At one with his destiny, that soil is his.

Let his village remember.

This was not your land, or ours: but a village in the Midlands,

And one in the Five Rivers, may have the same graveyard.

Let those who go home tell the same story of you:

Of action with a common purpose, action

None the less fruitful if neither you nor we

Know, until the judgement after death,

What is the fruit of action.

‘To the Indians Who Died in Africa’ by T S Eliot (ICSE Class IX)

I dabbled with writing poetry since an early age. Few of them were assignments. Few of them were an effort in trying to impress someone or the other (assuming the other had the intellectual bent for such art form). Few were to try different forms of poetry, of which the 14-liner sonnet appealed the most. The dabbling paid dividend during my graduation years in Bangalore. In a ‘Creative Writing’ competition in the annual college fest I wrote a poem for a topic ‘Do boyfriend/girlfriend have an expiry date in today’s world?’ (that was in 2007). I bagged the first prize for it.

I was happy with my effort. However I was deeply aware of my shortcomings, which were plenty. I have always put pen to paper to write poems with a decent frequency. I have posted few on my blog (sambitspeak.blogspot.com), but that would perhaps be because it doesn’t cost a dime. What I write could well tuck itself in a diary which has a thread around to hold it not escape to the view of others.

‘Poetry Workshop by Arundhati Subramanium’. Seeing the announcement in the all-exchange-users of the university was delightful. I had to go for it, however strange the concept of a ‘workshop’ for ‘poetry’, which otherwise is so subjective, so personal, so intimate, sounded. Go I did.

Poets have that ‘aura’ of a mystic whose gaze goes beyond the threshold of the immediate into the oblivion to conjure images and words and weave them into the tapestry that is both mystical and mundane. Arundhati Subramanium was that and was not that. A day long of indulgence (safe to term it so because who spends a day to learn poetry writing who wouldn’t become a poet) had some significant takeaways.

The 5 essential features that makes a ‘good’ poem, as the acclaimed poet told the small audience, and as I remember it now, which is three weeks and a lot of non-poetic work later, and which I hope makes sense to anyone who wishes to polish their craft of poetic writing, are:

1.   Sound

“I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty” – Edgar Allen Poe

How does the poem sound, what does the texture feel like, does it have a flavor, rhythm, texture, does it impart a flavor, a taste… These are few questions one should ask while reading a poem or white writing one.

To rhyme or not to rhyme. That’s the question.

We have grown up with poems that rhyme and perhaps that has an indelible mark when we attempt to write one, often searching for pair of words like sun-fun, near dear, bake-lake, etc. It has been a late realization but perhaps rhyming is not a cornerstone in poetry writing. Also free verse is not prose with few ‘Enter’ keys.

The example of perhaps the most popular poem of all times is the one by Robert Frost. Note the rhyming there. Just brilliant.

Form of the poetry, iambic pentamer or sonnet or anything else might and ideally should come later in the stage of poetry writing. That, unless one is too smitten by a form and cannot help but think and write comfortably cocooned in it.

An example of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry (free verse).

2.  Imagery

A good poem, like what a good prose does in numerous lines, should make the reader see an image that the writer wishes to project, and only in a few lines.

The effective way of getting to do that with your poem is to follow the image. Stay with the image and follow it. Showing the reader should be the intention, not telling.

This can be inculcated by being reflective, by following a thought, by seeing through the eyes of mind the vividness of a scene.

Observe this example of a Luke Pretlusky poem. The colors have so wonderfully been attributed to other things that one can almost visualize it as one reads it.

While this is an example of literally adhering to the imagery as we best know it, with colors and everyday objects, a piece of poem should be able to build that image, practically of anything that is intended.

3.  Tone

A piece of poem need not be read aloud by the poet to convey its tone. The choice of words, the flow of lines should attain that; it should convey the tone to the reader. Tone gives emotional access to the reader.

A melancholic poem should sound sad, a romantic poem should sound filled with love.

Thus while writing one, one should observe the tone. It might need some effort to get the tone right. Often reading the poem after having written it, and perhaps after many rounds of reading, one can see that the tome that initially the writer thought was conveyed has changed.

In this example of a poem by Nissim Ezekiel note the tone (ah, the words ‘note-tone’). Set in the Indian Emergency era the ten-lined poem drips with sarcasm.

4. Economy

Each word, as Arundhati put it in the workshop, should earn its place in the poem.

Using words to fill a piece up so that it becomes rhyming or use of words that doesn’t add value to the poem must be avoided. It is not as easy as it sounds.

A writer is compelled to believe that whatever he has written is print-worthy yet on revisiting one’s piece, on self-critiquing, one can observe that a poem can be shortened and it will still convey what one wanted to.

Here I am not talking about Haiku’s. They are a different genre and perhaps very tough ones to write. Though in the Twitter-land every other person may become a haiku writer, it is in actuality deeper than that.

The next example is of a translation (of a medieval Kannada poem) by A K Ramanujan. Notice the brevity, the economy of words.

Another example depicting economy of words is by Emily Dickinson:

 5. Surprise

All that has to be said about love has been written, all about hurt has been written, and all about God has been written. So a love rhyming with dove or pain rhyming with disdain might well be predictable and juvenile. So would be anything that the reader can anticipate. While a poem is not a murder mystery, the surprise element needs to be taken care of.

The surprise could be the narrative itself, in the beginning or the end but ultimately should hinge upon saying something like it hadn’t been said before.

Another Jack Prelutsky example for depicting surprise:

Anyone can write poetry. I am a firm believer of that. Those who say it is not their cup of tea or their mug of coffee have not given insightful thought to it perhaps. Or there is that baggage that poetry has to be of a certain kinds and not seeing oneself conforming to that alliteration, that pattern, that arrangement acts as a deterrent. Break the barriers, you are beautiful, everything around you is. Your emotions are yours, your thoughts are yours. Read poems. Appreciate them. Critically analyze them. Feel them. I am no poet, or at least I wouldn’t call myself one, but a day long indulgence with the nuts and bolts of poetry was a unique experience. It had those essential two components – unlearning and relearning.

Disclaimer: All poetry shared above is freely available online.

 PS: This piece originally appeared in author Kiran Manral's blog as guest blog of the week (https://kiranmanral.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/guest-post-of-the-week-nut-bolts-of-poetry-by-sambit-dash/) 

Millennium Flashback Challenge - Steig Larsson

A competition that Steig Larsson fans should lap up!

Terms & Conditions for the #MillenniumFlashback Challenge:

 All the participants should either be fan on Hachette India Facebook page OR follow Hachette India’s Twitter handle @HachetteIndia.

 Participants should be Indian residents.

 Participants can participate only on Twitter or on Facebook. Multiple entries on both Facebook and

Twitter from the same participant will not be accepted.

 The contest will start on 24th August, 2015 at 01:00 pm and end on 25th August, 2015 at 03:00 pm. No late entries will be accepted.

 Participants will be eligible for the winning, only if they correctly answer all 6 questions on Twitter or all 3 questions on Facebook by 25th August, 2015, 03:00 pm.

 Participants must include #MillenniumFlashback in their responses.

 The entries may be screened for defamatory content/language.

 Hachette India employees and its partners’ employees are eligible to participate in the contest but
will not be considered for the prizes.

 Hachette India reserves the right for last minute cancellation and change in terms and conditions.

 Any disputes arising from this contest are subject to jurisdiction in Delhi.

 Winners will be determined by the management of Hachette India. The decision of the management will be final and no queries will be entertained in this regard.

Book Review - After The Crash

After The Crash falls under the 'unputdownable' category. For someone who is not very fond of non-fiction, I finished the book, reading intermittently in three days. It was owing to the suspense and how Michel Bussi, the author has hung it throughout. Comparing him to Steig Larsson is surely not an exaggeration. 

The story line is simple. A plane travelling from Istanbul to Paris crashes. All passengers are killed except for a three month old baby. Two families, one filthy rich, another modest claim that the girl is their grand daughter. The case is heard by a judge who awards the child's custody to the fisherman family who lived away from Paris by the seaside. 

However the investigation is then handed over to a private detective Credule Grand-Duc, who has 18 years (the crash happened in 1980) to prove whether the girl is Lyse-Rose or Emilie, The 100 page summary of the detective forms the bulk of the novel. As the mystery deepens regarding the identity we see family members, particularly two grandmothers in both families, Marc the love interest of the girl in question and others come into picture,

There in the pages of Grand Duc's diary is explained how all modes of investigation including DNA analysis was carried, how the clues linked, how new characters came into picture to contribute to the search yet in the end was left inconclusive, Meanwhile murders occurred, doubts on a relation which could be termed incestuous if the identity of the girl was to be Emilie, and a lot of past (and earth from crash site) is dug up.

Michel Bussi has been a master storyteller with no loose ends in the novel. He has tied the ends well. An important aspect is that minimum characters in the story make for a convenient read. Each chapter only increases the curiosity. The novel set in Paris largely, focuses on the plot and does to digress too much into background.

Readers of suspense and thrillers will perhaps feel that while a few sub plots are predictable, the timely injunction of new characters and sub plots albeit not hinging on the main plot keeps the suspense going stronger. At one point one might feel that the novel is written for a movie, or rather the narration brings visuals easily. And such is the power of the book,

While there often is a risk in such books to have an ending that is outlandish or so disconnected that the reader gets put off, After The Crash has successfully avoided such a scenario. In the revealing of the identity of the girl, dots created earlier in the book has been connected, and connected well.

Do read the book. It is paced ideally and the plot is clutter free. I would recommend it.

Link: http://www.flipkart.com/after-crash-english/p/itme9gcsdbkmsyra?q=After+the+Crash+%28English%29&as=on&as-show=on&otracker=start&as-pos=p_1_after+the+crash&pid=9781474602044 

Indian Railways - an Ode

The joy of travel is meant to be cherished

An experience, it should be fostered & nourished

But the thought of such fun instantly vanishes

If the journey is to be made by Indian Railways

The stations usually chaotic and crammed

Desolate at nights, no men uniformed & armed

One grapples to find a clean place to sit on 

Paan spit designs all the corners adorn

The sight of the tracks be best avoided

Nothing worthy though could be traded

Not a T3 or T2 presenting visual delight

Remember you’re taking train not a flight

If your seat is by the end of the bogeys

You’ll be in for untold miseries

For the toilet stench shall emanate right there

Not to vomit if eaten well, you should take care

The prices of food products often surprising

Sold by contractors with MRP surpassing

Sky rocketing inflation over past years in ‘meals’

Quality long back had tumbled down the hills

  

The beggars frequent & one might not mind

Chain snatchers at stations not so kind

Certainly one is ensured of sleepless nights

For the peril of theft and the bed bug bites

The vagaries aren’t limited to the SL class

Condition in AC bogies also crass

Cockroaches, rats’ now regular co-passengers

Duly filled though records of pest controllers

The bed linen creates doubting Thomases

If they ever, how and who really washes

The temperature freezes or causes sweating

Attendant asking ‘baksheesh’ at the end irritating

The fourth largest railways in the world

Record number of employees in its fold

A lifeline that millions of commoners depend on

Is in tatters and in a state of dilapidation

Political & bureaucratic lackadaisical attitude

Inflicting miseries on people in multitude

The gargantuan system called Indian railways

In dire need to amend its lopsided ways.

Sleeping in a Seminar

Pic source: blog.scriptosphere.com

 It began with the function formal,
In a room bustling with energy.
Speakers’ enthusiasm akin to grand mal,
Trying best to strike a synergy.

In no time the lights went off,
Monotonous drone now pitch high.
Staying in the room began getting tough,
Yet another ‘seminar’, I heaved a sigh.

Head started swaying, eyelids drooping,
Air conditioning coming to aid.
To varied places minds journey now starting,
No offense to speaker all done and said.

Labyrinth of thought in quasi-sleep, created a picturesque view,
I woke up only when the slide read the sweet words, ‘thank you’.