Category: Uncategorized

Alex, the lion in the Madagascar franchise.

Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?

I would love a comparison with Alex, the male African lion in the Madagascar franchise, Escape to Africa.

Because he’s happy, funny and is loved by all the other animals in the wild.

His dancing in the movie both in New York (while in captivity) and in the wild later on was awesome. I too I’m a good dancer, in a funny way though.

His look when posing with a fruit-hat (as punishment) is what made me choose him as my favorite animal. 

He is, no doubt, a real hero.

A century of living, loving and learning!

Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.

Dear me,

Congrats on scoring a hundred! Sigh!

I’m so proud of you. The century must come at a time when playing life as a sport isn’t so easy for many. 

You have seen the good and bad. What a roller-coaster of a life! Many ups and downs and you have still won. Bravo!

A win against all odds, to say it honestly.

You knew the ball coming at 156 miles per hour on the pitch wasn’t the one you often faced at the nets. One was a practice and the other a profession.

You know the difference. And you were able to play a great knock. Kudos!

How the opposition were howling at you when you ducked! Those short-pitched deliveries were deliberate.

How they nudged you in the ribs when you left those without offering a stroke!

Didn’t they call you names? How they told you off many times. You stood your ground. Great!

The running between the wickets needed a trusting and loving partner. And luckily you had one. Thanks to the partner who stayed all through the rough weather in life. Brilliant!

One small mistake you will be gone, ‘OUT’ short of crease.

No appeal could have saved you as DRS was in place and the technology would send you home in a minute. And the audience would be jeering you on a giant screen. Hell with those constant replays!

Came the new villain, Duckworth-Lewis. How tough life was! You score well and you will still lose the match. Damn those tough equations!

The bowler and the guy behind the stumps have always known your Achilles heel. They showed no mercy when you had been late to the crease.

The opposition always threw the ball to the end where you were heading to. Such was the love the competition taught you.

You survived the Bodyline series and pajama cricket.

You survived the Chinaman and the crafty googlies. You survived Mankading on many occasions. 

Age never deterred you from playing a patient innings all through. And money never pushed you to join a circus called Club Cricket.

You shied away from all the glitterati surrounding league cricket. You never looked at the glamour side of cheerleaders either.

Nobody could fix you for a small amount of money. 

All you carried in the kit were a box of salad, a bottle of water and a pack of chewing gum. You had no decent pair of shoes. You were never worried. No complaints.

You’re nothing but a personification of ‘Survival of the Kindest’.

I’m sure you will go on like this forever and score many tons. You belong to the elite club that consists of Don Bradman, Vivian Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. The tough veterans.

No Cook, Root, Babar, Gill or Marcus could break the records you patiently built yet in life. 

I shall wish you many more hundreds in life. Keep going. Keep kicking! Keep rocking!

See you soon at 200, mate!

With love,

GK

Women are no agony aunts!

February 11, 2020.

Girls studying at Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University based in Gujarat, India were put to a rude shock.

They were taken to the washroom by staff and forced to remove their undergarments to prove they were not menstruating.

What’s the crime? They were seen sitting in the canteen, chatting and eating food.

The university, as the news said, has put in place a strict rule that menstruating girls should not enter the cafeteria or the canteen to eat food. They should desist from joining others.

No sooner had this trauma for girls at the university ended than the guru, Mr. Krushnaswarup Dasji attached to Nar-Narayan Devgadi of Swami Narayan Sect said menstruating women in India should not enter the kitchen and cook food.

The reason, as he quoted from ancient Shastras, was that menstruation is a penance decreed by god. If they continue to cook food while menstruating, they will be cursed to be born as dogs in their next life.

The guru didn’t stop with just that.

If their husbands choose to eat the food, they will be reborn as bullocks, he said.

The nation was shocked. Many were outraged. Women in India have protested. 

The law quickly swung into action. 

The police arrested the principal, the hostel rector and the peon of Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI) for the shameful incident of stripping the girls.

8th of March today is the world’s women’s day and let’s wish women a happy, free and a fulfilled life.

While doing so, let me share a snippet of a story that appeared in the Washington Post about two years ago. Penned by the author Amruta Byarnal, the story talked about how a handful of women in Delhi reacted to Guru Dasji’s disparaging statement.

The story said menstruating women gathered and conducted a ‘Period Feast’. Women were called, asked to cook food and serve the guests.

Many, including men, attended the feast. The event was huge and people partied. Women wore T-shirts that boldly said they were menstruating.

Banners and balloons carried messages that said menstruation was natural, and the biological process was nothing demeaning of women.

“We felt it was important to respond to damaging statements about women because we didn’t want to give substance to myths and taboos any further,” said Rikita Narula of NGO Sachhi Saheli, which funded the feast.

The government data says there are 355 million menstruating women and girls in India, and only 42 percent have access to sanitary napkins.

According to a 2014 USAID-backed report, nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities.

Men like Guru Dasji have only helped damage the cause of women in India and the patriarchy is sadly the main villain.

Events like ‘Period Feast’ send a strong message to the world that women are born equal.

Women are as independent, career-building, equal and free as men. Periods for women should never be an impediment to their progress in society. 

Chitransh Saxena, a male guest at the event, was all in praise of the women gathered. He called for putting an end to old customs surrounding women’s hygiene.
He said he was there to support the women’s cause. 

Mr. Saxena, the founder of Pad Bank (a Delhi-based NGO) emphasised upon educating boys about women’s menstrual health.

On this day, let’s take a pledge, join hands with people who work for the cause of women round the world and work toward creating a society that’s all embracing and equal.

The last straw on camel’s back!

“Dear god, Krishna ji, please stay with me, please keep my parents happy … please help me crack Neet 2024”.

“God teach me how to work very hard” 

Those messages one never misses seeing on the wall of the Radhakrishna temple located at Kota, Rajasthan in India.

Kota in India is home to thousands of coaching centres for engineering and medical entrance examinations.

People call the city now the most stressful, as the place is known for all wrongful reasons. 27 students committed suicide last year and the number is rising.

Three have died this year. The latest being a 19-year-old engineering aspirant. RIP!

2 million students appear each year for just 140,000 seats in medical colleges in India. Over one million people compete for 10,000 seats in top engineering institutions called IITs.

Months ago, I went to a coaching centre located in Trichy, South of India.

Students study 18 hours a day, walking like zombies on the campus. Many of them sleep during class.

Teachers were mostly seen rushing through chapters and completing the job like how train drivers run between stations. Too mechanical, to say the least.

I saw a coach, an MIT, Chrompet (Chennai) alumni and an MD of a popular NEET academy breaking down in the middle of class, cry in front of students and start begging them for attention in the class.

Parents in India pay through nose (₹150,000 a year plus ₹30K for food & accommodation) for their children’s education. They place enormous hope on their wards. They want to see them as doctors or engineers, nothing less.

But there’s a sorry sight to the whole story.

Students can’t cope and they commit suicide. The pressure for them is just too much to bear.

The government is confused. While the authorities sit, discuss and contemplate measures to arrest this disturbing trend, students continue to harm themselves at these killer-centres.

Why do students resort to making such extreme ends?

Mental health issues, academic pressure and social stigma drive students to go to this extreme end – screams the article in Frontline, The Hindu.

35% of recorded suicides occur in the age group of students between 15 and 24 years, says statistics on Wikipedia.

Are students happy at home?

Studies say students who are well integrated with their families and community have a good support system during crises, protecting them against suicide. 

Low levels of emotional warmth often drive them to seek a lonely spot.

A high level of parental control, or over-protection, by parents is associated with a three-fold increase in the risk of their ward’s suicidal behaviour.

How to spot them going bonkers early on?

Students nowadays pick up info about harming themselves from platforms such as YouTube and the internet.

A suicide often precedes an attempt. An early identification of what they do when they are alone and timely intervention should help stop them.

This could help in reducing suicide rates in India, experts say.

Intervention as well as a primary prevention strategy could help keep the rate of suicide under check.

Create a positive atmosphere for the children to interact freely with parents, elderly and friends.

Teach the students to cope. Tell them to learn an adaptive mechanism in life.

An awareness campaign should be spread among parents, teachers and healthcare professionals regarding child-rearing practices.

The community should frequently meet up, sit and discuss various social programs, such as child and family-supporting ones.

The community agenda may further include programs that aim at achieving gender and socio-economic equality.

Start now to see the results.

PS: the happiest lot I’ve seen at the NEET campus was the young staff working in the canteen.

They were of a similar age group. But they were more independent, carefree, employed, earning, carrying a phone, riding on bikes, socializing, cheerful and headed home by evening.

 

Failure is a stepping stone to success.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

A failure should never put us down. Failure is all about signs that take us to progress.

Give you an example of how failure turned a man into a huge success.

My friend, Sakthivel lived in Trichy, a fort city in Tamilnadu, South of India.

He did his graduation in automobile engineering and quickly found a job with an auto giant.

He was good at work, hit big in the company and brought fame. But that didn’t last long though.

He quit the job within two years as he was too stressed.

He had to travel most of the time and he missed his family. His wife, two daughters (twins) and a young son missed him a lot.

He decided to launch a start-up and pledged all the assets he owned to banks for funds.

He started a showroom that sold Italian-made scooters. 

He soon ran into trouble. Sales didn’t go as expected. He failed in the venture.

He lost his money and went completely bankrupt. His family was broke.

He sat introspecting one day when a customer called and said he wanted to buy a scooter. All Sakthivel had in his possession was one last scooter.

As he was waiting for the customer Anil, his nephew Prakash popped in for the routine coaching classes. Sakthivel was helping the boy with his class 12 exams.

The doorbell rang as Anil entered. He apologized for turning up so late. He saw Sakthivel sitting in the cabin with a boy and there was a class going on. 

Sakthivel said he was helping his nephew with free coaching in physics and mathematics.

Anil asked if he would mind coaching his daughter Purnima too, as she was struggling with the subjects and the exams were fast approaching. He said he would pay for his service.

Sakthivel wasn’t too keen. But he said jokingly that he would coach his daughter for free if he bought the scooter as promised.

Anil was so happy and issued a check at once. Finally, a sale was made.

He kept his promise and helped both his nephew and the girl with some serious coaching in physics and mathematics. He himself was a top ranking student in the said subjects at school and college. 

The duo appeared for the examination and the results came. Both scored good marks.

Anil’s family was joyous as their daughter scored full marks. A 100/100 each in Physics and Mathematics. All thanks to strict coaching by Sakthivel.

As a gratitude, Anil took him to the school where his daughter Purnima studied. The head of the school was so thankful to Sakthivel and asked if he could offer his services as a special coach to teach Physics & Mathematics to the rest of the students in the school.

He said YES.

He soon became so popular with the students, and they called him a ‘Century Coach’. Because he helped many students to score 100 in physics and mathematics.

Many schools approached Sakthivel for special assistance in coaching students.

He has hit fame now. 

He now owns two colleges in the city, and has just taken up another huge place in Chennai for the purpose of coaching students to write NEET, an entrance exam for students who wish to join popular medical colleges in India.

Sakthivel is now heading the ‘Sakthi Residential NEET Academy’ headquartered at Trichy.

He runs his own YouTube channel and is a popular coach among students all over India.

The number of students in his academy is now growing each year. The strength stands now at around 1000.

Failures in his life didn’t tire him. Failure made sure he was progressing to a successful entrepreneur.

Spanish Travel Couple, Assaulted and the Woman Gang-raped in India.

Is India a safe place for women travelers?

“Spanish Travel Vloggers Assaulted, Gang Raped In India During Motorcycle Tour Of Globe” – screamed the headline on therepublica.com

Vincente and Fernanda, a Spanish couple, were on a “Vuelta Al Mundo En Moto (Around The World By Motorbike)” tour when they reported they had been assaulted by a gang of robbers and rapists in India on 1st March 2024.

The Vloggers have traveled to over 60 countries, starting from Barcelona 5 years ago. They had biked about 170,000 kilometers so far and were on their way to Nepal via India’s Jharkhand state when this sad, abominable incident happened. 

The couple is well known and have gathered 122,000 followers on Instagram documenting their journey, meals, and experiences as they trek across continents.

They reported the incident to police immediately and the couple have released a video narrating the ordeal. The video is now viral on social media. 

The police have nabbed three men who committed the crime and are on the lookout for four more. 

But the chair of NCW (National Commission for Women), the statutory body in India established for the purpose of helping women, protecting them and promoting women’s rights and interests, has tweeted that people shouldn’t report crimes on social media, and they should go to police. She said this almost a day after the couple had approached police.

Such is the ignorance of people sitting in top positions in India. 

“Rape is the most common crime against women in India”, says the front page on Wikipedia.

The portal says further that about 32,000 cases of rape were registered according to the 2021 annual report by NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau). That’s about 85 rape cases averaging a day.

Isn’t that a big shame for the nation of 1.43 billion? And the worse is, the cases, according to the NCRB report, are rising each year.

A quick search on Google throws up how an (anonymous) mom lists out safeguards for women when they tour India.

She says (among various other safeguards) that women should avoid dressing up provocatively. How sad!

How weak men in India are! The mom believes women’s dress in India attracts unsolicited attention from men. 

But treating women in India with respect goes back to ancient times.

The Vedic period (1500 – 500 BCE) says women were treated equally by men in all aspects of life.

Vedic scholars such as Patanjali and Katyayana have written that women were educated and there are verses in Rigveda which suggest that women were married at a mature age.

They were free to choose who to marry and who to live with.

Swayamvar and Gandharva marriage practices were clear examples of how women enjoyed freedom in those days.

What’s gone wrong now? What’s the remedy?

• Teach the next generation about gender, respect and human rights. Simple.

• Tell children that it is OK to be different.

• Encourage a culture of acceptance.

• Talk about consent, bodily autonomy, and accountability in an age-appropriate way for boys and girls.

• Discuss the importance of choices and how to take responsibility for one’s actions.

• Listen to children.

• Empowering the young with information and educating them about women’s rights, we can build a better future for all.

Let’s make the world a better and safer place for women. For women in India and for those who choose to come to India on tours.