An Irrepressible Cynic?

Over the years from a young age I have always had a keen interest in following news from around the world. As I grew up this interest only strengthened and became more focused. Thus as I describe in my twitter bio I became a follower of international politics & current affairs. I felt passionately about the injustices happening around the world.

The advent of the social networking, initially Orkut and also Hi5 (who remembers that one??), then later Facebook and then above all (for me) Twitter, set the groundwork to increase my interest (or should I say obsession) in current affairs. I followed news from varied sources, shared my opinions, interacted with many others of similar ilk, debated and argued with sensible and also hypocritical populace, all on issues which were never really directly connected to me. Of course these activities always went on a parallel course to my regular academic and now professional life. My friends mostly observed this interest of mine with a nonchalant bemusement. And I somehow managed to sustain my awareness though I never had the benefit of sharing this interest with many.

My attention to news has predominantly been oriented around Middle-east and South Asia and invariably when being a slactivist and commenting upon injustices in these regions it is inevitable that you acquire an anti-American tone.  Thus very recently in an online debate with a sensible person I have developed an “anti-American ethos” and have become too “cynical to take a step back and opine”. While I refuted these claims instantly it did prompt certain level of introspection in my mind. US military and political actions hardly provides any room for “pro-American” views for anyone with a sense of justice. Other than that Obviously being a malayali it is in our “ethos” to atleast be a tad cynical / skeptical about everything and I do not deny that in my nature. But beyond that world news for a reasonable amount of time is sufficient to make any optimist into a cynic.

Other than this I was also informed that I manage to induce further depression to depressed minds with depressing insights about depressing news/events. Anyone following world events will vouch to say that it invariably leaves you with a depressed feeling. Many a times I have wondered why I follow all these news. What purpose does it serve? Never have I been able to make a difference. Than why do I..?? Maybe...just maybe, there is a hidden optimist in me, clutching to a straw of hope that it will all eventually be of some use. All the reading, viewing, understanding, thinking, analyzing, introspecting will someday enable to make a tiny bit of difference. If nothing else this thought carries me through particularly depressing moments.

Wallowing in misery…

A miserable football season comes to an end finally…a season that really didnt even provide a small measure of cheer.It really couldn’t have come a day sooner for me. Liverpool, Real Madrid, Juve and Roma ended their campaigns trophy-less…not one of the clubs I hold dear to my heart tasted success..But for me football has never been about winning alone. I will suffer the sorrows with as much pleasure as the victories. Its all about the experience..that unexplained connection..being part of something whose value cannot be defined..feeling the passion!!
No better words to console yourself than those immortal words of the song by Rogers/Hammerstein..we shall walk through this storm with our head up high!!
So here’s to all my clubs…
You’ll Never Walk Alone
Hala Madrid
Forza Juve & Roma
Here’s to a fabulous next season!!!

What is my connection to Palestine?

The title isn’t really a rhetorical question..it’s something I’ve been asked on numerous occasions by friends, batch mates and online acquaintances. The questions where in all cases prompted by some online activity of mine... a gtalk status message, a shared link on Facebook or a retweet of a video on twitter, all related to Palestine. The tone of the questions have ranged from total ignorance to outright bemusement to genuine curiosity, but none of them ever really comprehended what prompted me to bother about Palestine. Today, on this first anniversary of Israel’s war on Gaza, an act of criminal brutality against a nation quite unsurpassed in its scale and scope in recent history, my twitter activity brought back the same old questions regarding the Palestinian connection. Hence I thought it’s about time that I elaborated a bit regarding this matter.

First of all I am no major activist or anyone of that sort. I can at best be described as a passive online supporter of the Palestinian struggle. My involvement has been limited to signing petitions/ spreading the message/sharing links/getting involved in discussions at various online forums etc primarily when significant events happen in Palestine and the greater Middle-East region. Yet even such minimal actions have invoked such wonder about my persuasion to do so, that it is rather disheartening.

Palestinian cause from my point of view is fundamentally a struggle against the epitome of tyranny in its most evil form. It is an outright travesty of justice to be cast out from your homeland and to be persecuted and oppressed for not making way to satisfy the objectives of a racist movement. That the rest of the world has largely been a silent observer (let’s face it.. voting countless UN resolutions which are all bound to be vetoed by USA is equivalent to silent observation) and in some cases an active sponsor and cohort (you all know which country I am talking about don’t ya?) to all these gross transgressions over the decades still shocks me.

This struggle is much beyond a mere act of religious militancy. Of course one cannot deny that the divergence in theocratic beliefs that laid the foundation for the problem and the religion has been a strong underlying influence on all discourse on this subject. But the fact is the struggle by Palestinians is primarily a struggle for justice, human rights and for their homeland. To be integrated into a wider religious militant movement worldwide was the worst thing that could have happened to the Palestinian struggle. For the Islamic fundamentalists and terrorist organizations in many parts of the world, Palestine was a just cause, the endorsing of which would generate mass support and lay the foundations for their organizations in its infancy. But this resulted in Palestinian struggle being bracketed along with every other power struggle and irrational act of violence which misused the name of Islam for their benefit.

The idealistic and simplistic tone I have used while reflecting on the Palestinian issue is not because I am naïve and don’t comprehend the complexities that have been inculcated into this conflict over the course of the last 50 years. Also I have not gotten into the geo-political and many other nitty-gritty’s of this conflict not due to my lack of awareness but because I do not claim to be an expert on this subject and many far more knowledgeable people have already done a much better job of it. Moreover the essence of my post was to reflect on my stance on the issue based on more deep-rooted reasons.

Also I am not trying to put forth a one-sided perspective based on any bias. I do see that wrong has also been done from the Palestinian side. Killing of innocent civilians is in no way acceptable even though it is just stooping to the level that Israel has consistently maintained for the last 60 years. Also as far as political aspects of this issue are concerned the plight of the people has been aggravated by the actions of other Arab countries at times and even by the internal politics in Palestine which has muddled the situation further on occasions. But all of this can at best be described as actions that have further worsened the state of affairs from what it already would have been consequent to Israeli persecution. Also my support for Palestine has not been for any group or organization, but for the people of Palestine and their right to their homeland.

As an observer of international politics, it is dismaying how the nations of the world have stood by and watched while Israel (with US support) has occupied another country and destroyed their homes to build settlements. As an advocate of basic human rights, it is horrendous to observe Palestinians being subjected to apartheid by the Israeli regime even in this day and age. As a supporter of international peace and conflict resolution, it is appalling to see that Israel have been permitted to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and West Bank. Above all as a human being, it is horrifying that any fellow being has been suffering persecution and is being deprived of justice for so long.

Herein are my opinions and reflections on the subject of Palestine and therein you can see my reasons for supporting the struggle by the people of Palestine.

Impossible is Nothing!!!!!!

Yesterday was the first day for buying applications and registering for this year’s newly transformed Online CAT (so is the acronym OCAT now??). Another variation in this year’s CAT of providing an exam window of 10 days has sent students scrambling to Axis Bank branches as early as 7am in order to register first and appear on a later date. (Info courtesy @arunraveen who was at the back end of that queue) I suppose in the coming years TIME, IMS and their ilk would have module which will help students analyze and decide the optimal day during the window at which to appear for the exam in order to gain a competitive advantage over their fellow aspirants. Of course this would be very reasonably priced at 5000 rupees or so, with abundance of course material to go with it. I digress...anyways the thing is that it seemed like a fine time to shirk of my inherent laziness and write a long overdue post about my incredible CAT adventure that changed the course of my professional career even before it actually began.

I was just into my final year of engineering (the most amazing years of my life) and was thoroughly disillusioned with prospects of working as a software engineer in a year’s time, primarily because my interest and knowledge about coding in any form was zilch...zero (just to emphasize). Thus a bit of thought and introspection and also interaction with few others (not boring anyone with nitty-gritty’s of it) lead me to the conclusion that an MBA would be the savior of my otherwise doomed to fail prospective career path.

The choice I made about my career path was to an extent guided by majority persuasion. All these aspirants had turned to MBA as if it was higher calling(which it was in a monetarily..until the recession that is‌..) and there after the one and only course of action in front of all of them was to appear for CAT. Now the perception about CAT among MBA aspirants is that of a mythological conquest, especially if you are a fresher. All you here is about it being the toughest exam in the world and the conversion ratio of 2-3% is lower than that of Harvard..blah..blah..blah. Legend will be written and tales will be told in the future (Ohhk...I lifted this line from football commentary but who could have guessed it :D) about those heroes who successfully complete this mighty conquest. There was many a serious aspirant who started their preparation very early, way before I even made the decision to appear for CAT. Now talking about my preparation we again come to the term that appears frequently in this post...zilch..zero. I hadn’t appeared for any of the so called “Mock CAT’s” conducted by a host of these coaching centres in various cities in Kerala. Not even for the one conducted by The TIME Coaching centre in tie-up with “Club Mathematica” in our college campus. Now this particular “Mock exam” was in my opinion nothing more than a photo-collection exercise for next year’s ad campaigns. Considering the fact that around 10 people get into IIMs from every passing out batch of our college and many more do so after working for a few years, some smart alec must have figured it out that collecting the photos of as many as possible from our college would be come in handy for every year's "success" ad campaigns which they come out with as soon as the results are declared. My attempt at CAT was intended as a practice for more serious attempts in the coming years and the chances of me clearing it could have been summarized in one word..IMPOSSIBLE!!!

Now, as I mentioned before, there was no shortage of MBA aspirants in our college and I think more than a 100 folks were all set to give the exam on the fateful day. I must also make a mention of the fact that majority of these aspirants had preparation levels that were comparable to mine. So on the day of the exam I was pretty much like Frodo..not even Frodo..more like Pippin (going along for the ride) heading out to Mordor to take on the might of Sauron without likes of Gandalf or Aragon or the others to support me. One of my friends told me recently that I had asked me what DI stood for on the morning of the exam (for the uninitiated DI stands for Data Interpretation and is 1 of the 3 main sections of the CAT exam paper). The D-Day was just another day for all of us lazy laggards who comprised the majority of those who set out and were just making a token appearance. The majority of aspirants boarded our Jeeps to the various examination centres in the city with exalted hopes of a chance encounter with a beautiful member from the fairer sex who would be among the throngs who had descended onto the city from all parts of the state to appear for this exam. Exam was an unremarkable affair as far as I was concerned. I went in, did whatever I could to the best of my ability and left the place. The highlight of the day was the Fish Biriyani I had from the Zain’s Restaurant in the city which is one of the best fish biriyani that I have ever had in my life! (Coming from me that’s saying a lot ).

By the night after the exam the TIME, IMS and their ilk where at it again publishing solution keys of the question paper (none of which turned anywhere near accurate when the actual key was published). Everyone were busy comparing their answers (of which they had made a note of in the question paper) to the keys and coming out with their scores and accessing their chances of getting calls again based on previous year’s information. No one told me that I was supposed to make a note of the questions I had attempted and which option I chose..duh! Hence I remained without an inkling of my performance in the exam. Many days passed by during which there was speculation about the date of CAT results to which I didn’t pay much heed. The one fine morning in January the campus was abuzz with news that CAT results were out. Frantic individuals were scrambling to find out the results by whichever means possible (the site had crashed quite early itself). The outcome was a mixed bag all round with many a surprise result...of the good and bad kind. I too gradually checked my scores through a friend’s mobile through an SMS service and, lo, to mine and everyone else’s surprise I had done relatively very well getting a score which would fetch me a few calls. Whatay shocking surprise it really was!!! My initial response was like that of Monica’s when Ross tells her that his lesbian ex-wife Carol is pregnant in FRIENDS Season1, Episode 2, 6:40 . A while later, when the site was up and running again, I confirmed that I had indeed received calls for GD/PI from 4 different IIMs.

After the elation of this success I had to get started on my preparation for the next level which would prove to be even tougher. But preparations did take a serious note from then on and I was fortunate enough to crack the GD/PI level for one of the IIMs and thus complete the transformation of my career path along a much more preferred and desirable trajectory.Maybe that's one for another blog post, but its really not much of a tale.Anyways, now I would like to wrap up this post on a sober note saying that this is in no way meant to be disrespectful to the all those folks who work hard to “bell the CAT” but may this be an inspiration for the many happy-go-lucky souls out there. Just to let it be known that IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING is not just an Adidas tag line!

P.S- A special thanks to Tony Sebastian, a. k. a, @notytony who put the idea of blogging about this whole experience into my head.

The Lesser of Two Evils...

Now that i have i got the first post out of the way its time to move on to something more interesting..hopefully (what with my writing skills n all..)
Whatever you think of Indian politics and its politicians one thing you cant deny is that its a spectacle that is quite unmatched anywhere else in the world....and the parliamentary election is indeed the Super Bowl of this sport. With polling having been held across the nation for the last one month nothing else has captured the minds of the people all over the country more(not even IPL!) and even abroad I think(considering the BBC election train n all that...). Anyways all talk of election quickly transforms into a debate with the participants aligning themselves with either of the 2 key players in the arena...UPA or NDA or more precisely Congress or BJP.. Of course there is the third front (n now even a fourth i gather) but no one considers them seriously unless you are a Mayawathi for PM campaigner (Thankfully haven't met anyone of that mindset till now) or you are in Kerala or West Bengal..

I myself have been party (many times a silent observer) to informal debates or chat session on this matter. What I have generally observed in these interactions is that the folks involved invariably take a pro-BJP or anti -BJP (n by that inclination a reluctant pro-Congress) stand. Many in this exercise, especially those in the second category deplore the state of politics in our country and all the political parties that have collectively contributed to transforming it into its current state. But considering the fact the fate of our nation (ergo the fate of its residents..) lie in the hands of these, many a time despised category of individuals, all of us have been forced into taking a decision..or more precisely choosing a side.

I myself am one from the second category. Rather than take a moral high ground, ignore all political activity n give a lot of mumbo-jumbo reasoning for that, I have taken into account the necessity of taking a stand and decided to choose a side. Now everyone knows that the primary claim to fame for all political entities would be much more likely to be bad than anything good... For me one defining dismal trait with regard to Congress would be the culture of sycophancy existing throughout its organization, while in the case of BJP it is its fundamentally divisive ideology on which its whole existence is based. So if forced to make a choice between these two I will take sycophancy for it definitely is "the lesser of two evils"
Now coming back to the informal discussions, its usually the case that it is the pro- BJP sides that puts up a more vehement argument for their party and these arguments are formulated with the deficiencies of Congress as its ingredients. 3 key points that are most frequently raised are the dynasty politics, minority appeasement or vote bank politics and the poor record of governance. These are all very valid points which no would even attempt to deny (Unless you are the Congress spokesperson). But if you look into these issues closely you will find that these are not something which is attributable to Congress alone. Let me go through it one by one

1. Dynasty Politics- Before I begin on this issue let me make it clear that I do not want Rahul Gandhi to be the prime minister. The one commendable thing he has done is come out publicly and state that he does not want to be PM. Hopefully he will stick to his words (If it ever comes to that ofcourse..)
Now as far as dynasty politics is considered it has been a bane of the political system in our country and has seriously undermined the democratic ethos that we as a nation have embraced. Congress is of course a prime culprit in this regard but this is not a phenomenon just restricted to Congress. Every two penny worth politician from any party in our country has (more so in recent years) tried to get a post for his wife/son/daughter/brother-in-law etc. The Nehru-Gandhi family gets most of the stick for setting up a political dynasty but i think this is mainly because they have been very successful in this regard. The dynasty system is an remnant of the feudal system that existed in our country and the fact that it is if anything becoming more and more widespread is an alarming trend. The situation has become such that nowadays once you reach a position of political power it is taken as their undeniable right and a privilege that should be handed on to their dependents.

2. Vote bank politics- Again this is something that has become the basis of our political system. I think Congress should shoulder the blame for probably introducing this concept but then every political party has adopted it and made it their modus operandi for getting votes. Congress appeases minorities and other backward castes, BJP panders to the upper castes, BSP targets the Dalits, Lalu stands for the Yadavs and so on.... This political strategy has resulted in the continuing existence of the caste system in our country (that too as strong as ever)

3. Poor record of governance- In all the years of its extensive reign in power in the Centre and in a large number of states Congress had done very much lesser than it should have done by any reckoning and this is an inexcusable flaw in its performance history. But then when you look at the various other parties that have been given the mandate by the people in order to rectify this serious lapse we see that none have had anything better to offer in terms of performance whether it be at the Centre or the state. (Before anyone jumps up to offer the example of Gujarat let me say I am not willing to sacrifice the pluralistic society in which we exist for economic development). In recent years there has been lesser tolerance among the voters for incompetent performances by their governments and this has begun to produce marginally better performances and all we can hope for is this gradual transformation would change the existing scenario in the long run and maybe somewhere in that time scale we would have a few leaders of integrity who would provide momentum to this transformation process.

Anyways all said and done we are at the dawn of the D-day when the verdict of the people will be finally revealed and we shall know who will steer the our country for the next five years(hopefully..).Lets wait n watch

P.S: given the unpredictability of the Indian electorate it is quite likely my dismissal of the Third Front as insignificant may turn out to be foolish and we might see Mayawathi as the next PM of India (God Forbid...) Hopefully I will not end up with egg all over my face like many a pollster after the 2004 parliamentary elections!

P.P.S Having said all this I must inform anyone unfortunate enough to have ended up in this blog that I did not vote in the elections though this was only due to the fact that I was out of my state.

My uninspired self

Finally having shrugged of years of inherent laziness I have decided to take the plunge into the sphere of blogging...Its a long overdue exercise folks! Bear with me...

To get things of the ground I thought I'd put in an introductory post about myself... I've never been one to talk much about myself (at least that's what i think :) )... well I am someone treading the road most travelled by, a career path much sought after...from premier institutes of repute. It would seem that I am a focussed career person and I am heading on the road to great professional achievements. But nothing could be farther from the truth....

My whole academic life has been a combination of a series of fortuitous occurrences and the spinelessness to try anything different..I probably owe a lot to a whole lot of people for the position I am in now...right from God for giving me a half decent brain and wonderful parents to the professors who conducted my GD/PI at IIMI. As such even today after being on a "dream" career path I am still absolutely clueless about where my life is headed..

Its not that I purposefully want to let astray all the good fortune that has come my way..its just that I have never had the slightest freaking idea of what i wanted to do...many a things have held my interest..right from mathematics to history to economics but i somehow haven't really found a career option in any of these....other than academic stuff i have devoted many an hour to following current affairs and international politics, engrossed myself with passion in the sport that i love.."football"and the habit that I am eternally grateful that I am addicted to.."reading". But these were always seperate from my career..my interests were always meant to provide a welcome break from the monotony of work.

Thus hear I am rambling on about the lack of inspiration in my life..why am I here...I really dont know...