RANDOM THOUGHTS

My SBI interview

2012-01-13T10:36:00.003+05:30

Date: 12^th january 2012, Hyderabad

Exam for SBI PO posts was held in july 2011. It comprised ofan objective paper comprising maths, english, logical reasoning and generalknowledge. The written paper comprised of letter writing and precise writing. Aftera long wait of 7 months results were announced and I was shortlisted forinterview.

On 12^thjan 11 AM I was called for interview to SBI Headquarters, hyderabad. I reachedtheir campus around 10:30. It was a sprawling campus resembling a mini hitechcity. A total of 18 people were called for interview. I had to wait for overtwo hours to get my document verified. After which, they provided us lunch couponsand asked us to have lunch at their officers mess. After a quick meal, we weretaken to a conference hall for group discussion. Again we were made to wait foranother 2 hours as interviewers were busy interviewing people from morningbatch.

Theconference hall was huge with state of art equipments. All of us were providedwith a table mic. It was more a test on public speaking than a groupdiscussion, as the format allowed no scope for countering others points.Everyone were given 2 minutes to talk on topic in 1^st round andanother 1 minute to conclude in 2^nd round. The topic given was “villagesin India are its strengths or weaknesses” . I said villages were once astrength and now have become our weakness and gave a few suggestions to convertour weakness into stength. After group discussion, the interviews started

I wasnumber 4 on list and hence didn’t have to wait for long . The interview boardcomprised of 4 old men. Unlike a traditional interview setting, this room hadsofas on four corners of room and each was seated in one corner. I was made tosit on a chair in middle of the room.

Chairman: Welcome . please sit down.

Me: thank you sir

Chairman: So you have completed your graduation in 2010. Whatwere you doing since then?

Me: I have been preparing for civil services

Chairman: What is the status now?

Me: I have written the mains and results are yet to beannounced

Chairman: good. So if you get through civil services, You would prefer itover this job

Me: Yes

Chairman: Did you write any other bank exams?

Me: Yes I did. I managed to clear the exam for a couple ofbanks but I couldn’t attend interview as they were too close to mains exam

Chairman: Ok. Do you know about lothal?

Me; Yes sir, it is a harappan site. It was an important porttown

Chairman: Name some harappan sites in India

Me: Mohenjodaro

Chairman: its not in India

Me: sorry sir, its in pakistan. In India we have kalibangan,ranikhet

Chairman: Tell me one more

Me: I am not able to recollect now

Chairman: Name the person who designed delhi

Me: New delhi was designed by Lutyens

Chairman: Ok . what about chandigarh, rock garden is therena?

Me: I don’t know. I have stayed in delhi so I have an ideaabout it

Chairman: Ok. Name the tribes in meghalaya

Me: Mishmi…..gharo, khasi

Chairman: There is one more without which answer isincomplete

Me: I am not able to recollect not

Chairman: Its jaintia

Member 1: Can you give me technical definition of semiconductors?

Me: I can’t give technical definition but I can explain it

M1: ok please explain

Me: It is a material which has very low band gap and hencecan be bridged easily and made conductive. So it can act as a conductor incertain circumstances

M1: Can you tell me how much that band gap should be?

Me: I don’t remember

M1: atleast resistivity

Me; No sir

M1: what about insulator?

Me: I ddon’t remember the band gap range

M1: Ok. Can you name a nobel prize winner who was born inalmora?

Me: hargobind khurana?

M1: No.

Me: Am sorry sir. I don’t know

M1: name some nobel prize winners from India

Me: The latest was venkatraman

Chairman: what venkatraman?

Me: venkatraman ramakrishna

Chairman: no no tell me proper name

Me: I am not sure

M2; What is this? You have cleared prelims. You shouldsaying these takatak

Me: sir the exam pattern has changed. It is more analyticaland less bookish now

Chairman: but still, this is general knowledge. You will beasked these in civilis interview as well

Me: yes sir. I shall update myself in future

M1: Ok any other nobel laureates form india

Me: Amartya Sen

M1: Pandit amartya sen?

Me; No sir economist amartya sen

M1: that’s what. Pandit amartya sen

Me: eh??

Chairman : what he meant was you must address him as DrAmartya sen. He has accomplished so much

Me: yes sir, he is professor emeritus, renowned economist

M2: Who is Rajat gupta? Do you know him?

Me: Yes sir. He is facing allegations of insider trading

M2: who was he helping?

Me: Rajaraman

M2: raja..what

Me: The srilankan Rajaratnam

M2; Yes. name some rating agencies?
Me: CRISIL, Moodys
M2: in India
Me: I only know about CRISIL in india

M3: Who was responsible for green revolution in India?

Me; M S swaminathan and Norman Borlaug

M3: Ok. What about white revolution?

Me: varghese Kurien

M3: where?

Me; at anand

Chairman: Ok thanks you may go

Me; I would like to thank you all for giving me thisopportunity

Chairman: Ok all the best

The interview was for around 10 minutes. I left for homearound 4 PM .

It was more a quizzing session than an interview. I have afeeling they have struck me off as my priority is civil services. Hence they didn’task anything related to banking or my background.

Anyways lets hope for the best. The results are expected ina months time.

Post your feedbacks and suggestions as comments

Bank interview

2011-03-23T15:19:00.003+05:30

Bank of maharashtra interview , Hyderabad, 23rd march 2011
Keeping in view the changed pattern of civil services exam, I decided to write bank exams for practice. But later I realised that the marks are not disclosed by banks. Only the result i.e. whether you are selected or not is disclosed.
I wrote around 6-7 exams spread over 2 months(dec-jan). so far 3 results have been declared. Two banks (allahabad and vijaya) showed me the door. Surprisingly bank of maharashtra called me for the interview.Here is an account of what happened at the interview:
I had reached the place around 11 AM. It was one small multi-storey building. I was directed to the third floor. It was a video conference room. Then I realised that interview was going to be conducted through video conference. Ignorant of that fact, I bought new shoes and watch!! Alas all in vain.
I was second on list for interview. My certificates were verified. Most of the candidates were uncles and aunties(28-30 yrs). Hence the person verifying the certificates was doubtful about my age and I had to submit my driving license as proof of my age!!
The video conferencing room had an old Onida TV with a web cam sort of thing. At 12:30, it came up and a group of buddas and one aunty were sitting on other side. The group of buddas were restless to start off the interview. So we were shunted out of the air conditioned room into the corridor . Luckily I was number two on list , so didn’t have to wait for long. I pity others who had to wait in the hot sun and also the hot air blowing out of AC compressors placed in corridors
At around 12:40 , my turn came. I went and took my place. I could hardly make out the faces of the people. For me it was just 4-5 faceless people on other side, I hope it wasn’t so for them. Here starts my interview
Lady: So vaishnov, tell me about yourself, your back ground, your work experience, your parents etc
Me; I am bharath vaishnov,basically from hyderbad but my schooling has been across the length and breadth of country since my father is working in HPCL a PSU. I have completed my B.Tech from ASE bangalore. My hobbies are speed cubing and blogging. During my engg course, I got an opportunity to work with Bosch. [While working there I realised that IT sector was not for me. Out there people work in a narrow field. All work they do is going to serve only the needs of a small strata of society]******* . I want to work in a sector where 30-40 years down the line, I feel that through my work I have been able to serve the needs of a wider section of people. This is when I decided that banking is one sector which is on a rise and is serving the people at large. With the financial inclusion drive on, I am sure banking sector provides a wider scope to serve the society. Hence I have decided to join the banking sector
P1: Who is a leader?
Me: Leader is one who can get things done. Hence he/she should be able to motivate the people towards achieving the organisational goals. Also at same time , he/ she should make efforts to bring the employees goals in sync with organisational goals. That way they will be able to serve the cause of organisation in a better way.
Lady: What is your short term and long term goal?
Me: My goal is to be successful in what ever endeavour I take up. I would like to see myself in long term at a position where I feel satisfied about the work I have done and at same time people feel good about my work
Lady: what is success?
Me: It is all about achieving the goals that one has set for themselves and also at same time ensuring that in due course it brings happiness to the people around.
Lady: how do you think your educational qualification is going to help in your job ?
Me: Engineering provides problem solving skills. It helps in developing an analytical bent of mind. This will surely help in my job as a bank officer
P2: The bank is recruiting 400 probationary officers. What do you think is the reason?
Me: With the government insisting on financial inclusion, I am sure there will be a need to expand the bank network. Especially considering that bank of maharashtra is a leader in rural banking considering that 38% of the bank’s branches in rural areas, I am sure there will be a huge need for manpower. This can help bank put more people at cutting edge level and get more out of their network.
P3: will it improve efficiency/ productivity of bank?
Me: it depends on how the organisation handles it. If the new recruits are imparted the required skills and put in right place at right time, I am sure there will be a boost in productivity
P4: What are the expectations of employee towards the employer?
Me; as I said before, it is important that people are put in right place at right time. I think that is a key factor
P4: 2nd factor?
Me: errrr…..It is also important to provide a person exposure in different fields. Regular rotation of job should be there to ensure that job doesn’t become monotonous and employees remain motivated
P3: You are 21 year old. Under you people of 40-50 year old will be working. DO you think you can handle the situation?
Me: I have faced such situations during my internship at Bosch(bluff) . So I don’t think that will be a problem(I should have said that authority flows from position and not the person and hence if what you are doing is right, I think there will be no problems)
P1: ok thank you. You may go
Me: thanks for giving me this opportunity

I was disappointed that no economics questions were asked. Neither did they ask about their bank nor current affairs. Lets wait and see how the result is gonna be.

There ends my interview. Hope to see a positive result. They had called 1500 people for 400 vacancies. Hope I end up among the 400

*******The italicized lines are not my true opinions. it was made up just to satisfy the egos of interviewers.

Result:

On 25th april, i got a mail from bank intimating me about my selection as a bank PO. I was supposed to join on 9th of may at Latur in maharashtra with an initial pay pack of 14000 per month.

The flying dragon and the oversized elephant

2010-12-17T14:10:00.003+05:30

It has been a busy year for India when it comes to international relations. India has already hosted leaders of 4 of the P5 countries and the 5th will be coming soon. The most awaited visit was that of Wen Jiabao in the context of growing tensions between the two.

Despite the panchsheel and myriad other agreements China finds means and ways to irritate India. The latest being the stapled visa issue. India’s response has often been weak to the challenges thrown up by China. Post crisis China ‘s stakes in the global economy has raised to high and it now wields great power. But with great power comes great responsibility which is clearly lacking in the chinese way of politicking. It has constantly been at loggerheads with its neighbours be it japan, India or South Korea.

The growing presence of India in international fora has clearly irked China which seeks to be the dominant power down south. India’s policy towards China is flawed and lacks direction. At a time when China is putting its foot forward aggressively India is taking a step backward and pacifying the dragon. When China began throwing tantrums on Arunachal issue, India declared that it supported one China policy. At a time when trade deficit has reached unsustained levels, we have doubled our trade targets. While china puts up trade barriers for frontline indian industries, we are opening up our sensitive sectors like banking and finance to China .

On the stapled visa issue, India has been repeatedly imploring China to review its policy despite China giving a crass reply that it is an administrative issue!!How can a state belonging to India be an administrative issue for a foreign nation?? India needs to take a tit for tat stance on Tibet. In this regard India seems to have made some progress by not mentioning that it supports the one China policy in the joint statement. Also India’s decision to attend nobel prize ceremony should have sent a clear message to China .

Post 1962 war China captured a large chunk of J&K area known as aksai chin. Till date India has never demanded China to return back the land and even China has never bothered to tender apology to India for violating the panchsheel doctrine.

The widespread public view is that with the growing trade ties, China would be less aggressive and more obliging to India’s concerns. That doesn’t seem to be true. During the visit none of the core concerns of India seem to be addressed by China . The joint statement says that the ties have now be elevated form bilateral to global level. But what use are ties when they have divergent views? Even on a issue like terrorism, China refrained form taking a hard position.
India and China have agreed to cooperate on nuclear disarmament declares the joint statement. This seems to be more of a platitude than a commitment. This is clearly reflected in the fact that China has been actively empowering Pakistan , a state that is on the brink of failure, with nuclear technology.

On the whole Mr Wen’s trip was a mere PR operation. In the last 5 years there have been 4 high level delegation visits by India to China while from China this is the only visit. This sums up how the relationship is playing out. We need to make amends on our policy towards China .

THE telangana turmoil

2010-11-25T20:54:00.000+05:30

On Dec 31st whole world would be gearing up to party while in AP the situation is gonna be tense. This is coz Sri Krishna committee will be submitting its report on dec 31st. Sri krishna committee was setup to determine the legitimacy of demand for a separate telangana state, an area in north AP.
Over the last few years, the stir for a separate state has been intensified. During the rule of YS rajasekhar reddy(YSR), he managed to keep them subdued with his leadershipa nd coercive skills. With his untimely demise in a helicopter crash ins ept 09, the state has been left without a strong leader.
K Rosaiah , aveteran politician with over 4 decades of experience took on the burden of carrying on governanc e of a state where revenue was dwindling and separatist forces were gaining popularity.
Yesterday all of a sudden, K Rosaiah stepped down citing health concerns. The new CM announced is Kiran Kumar reddy. A comparatively younger and inexperienced congressman. This will be his 1st post in the government. This might seem a heroic move and a sign of encouragement for young politicians. But deep beneath lies a different reason.
With the state heading towards tough times in december, a lot of pressure would be there on CM . At this hour AP needs a strong leader. Rosaiah with his vast experience could have steered the ship through but seems like he has hsied away form taking on the challenge. Instead an inexperienced Kiran has been put onto the high pedestal. This is for sure a makeshift arrangement coz no big leader wants to take on the helm at this time and take the risk of losing their image and credibility post dec 31st.
With such a selfish mentality, it is hard for congress to survive long in AP . Only time will tell how AP repsonds to the situations and how the inexperienced CM handles it.

Charity: losing its sheen?

2010-11-01T02:07:00.002+05:30

Charity has been part of many a religious texts. According to dharma shastra of hinduism, charity should be anonymous and selfless. It was based on principle of left hand not knowing what right hand was doing and vice versa. Donations were anonymous and were genuine. Over the years , the selflessness and anonymity is being replaced by selfishness and publicity.
With the end of soviet era and the fall of communism, the states turned more capitalist. The global south or the 3rd world soon adopted to the western models of export led intensive growth and hoped for a trickle down of benefits to pull people out of poverty.
But the heady cocktail of corruption, redtapism and nepotism was too large an absorbent to let anything trickle down to the lower strata of society.Democracies turned into plutocracies. The result was a growing and diversifying divide. From a primitive rich poor divide, today we have the caste divide, the digital divide and so on. Humanity has been dissected and trisected according to the whims and fancies of the opportunist politicians.
All these have lead to a growingly selfish and sinful society. Surprisingly a major change is occuring in this world of narcists. One mister Gates suddenly got enlightened and opened up the gates of his bank account to let the wealth flood into the global south and help in bridging the very divides that companies like his created. Even in war torn countries like Iraq and afghanistan, the capitalists are leaving no stone unturned to publicise their brands.
Lord Blalaji of tirupathi today receives gifts amounting to crores of rupees from affluent people amidst full media glare. Donation which was once a low profile anonymous event has not become a PR event. Such has been the commercialisation/westernisation in our society.
India had assumed to itself a socialist pattern of society in 1970s , but this seems to be fast changing into a opportunist society where every activity is performed based on a cost benefit analysis.

Tax reforms

2010-09-14T00:02:00.001+05:30

Tax Reforms
Why tax reforms?
India after independence decided to tread the socialist path and govt took upon itself the onerous task of wiping the tears of the poor. However in its effort towards delivering services to all and ensuring equitable growth, its expenditure on social sector shot up. It established numerous public sector industries to manufacture goods right from bread to ambassdor cars. All these resulted in heavy spending. However governments revenues remained weak. One of the main source of government revenues are tax revenues. Tax revenue was alarmingly low because of the regressive tax structure we had. This called for a tax policy reform. Finally the fiscal crisis of 1990 forced us to unlash a series of reforms in our economy popularly known as LPG(Liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) reforms.
The tax policy pre 1991 suffered from following drawbacks
• It was retrogressive ie it taxed both the poor and rich equally. Majority of government revenue was from indirect taxes. Indirect taxes like excise duty , custom duty don’t differentiate between rich and poor
• It was irrational with tax rates going up as high as 97.6%(i.e. for every 100 rs earned 97.6 rs goes to govt)!!!
• Irrational policies discouraged people from paying taxes and lead to tax evasion
• The more the rules, the more the loop holes. With so many rules in the income tax act people with help of their chartered accountants could easily exploit the loop holes and thus managed to legally avoid tax
• All this lead to a huge fiscal deficit for government which mad eit imperative on govt to undertake tax policy reforms
What were the tax policy reforms?
The need for tax policy reforms was
• To improve tax to GDP ratio
• To progressively tax people ie tax the rich more and the poor less
• To increase revenue from direct taxes
• To improve the fiscal balance of govt
• To lower tax rates and widen tax base
Keeping these objectives in view MMS formulated a meticulous fiscal policy which worked wonders for our country.
He undertook following steps
• Earlier cotton cloth was subjected to 50 different tax rates depending upon quality of cotton. Such multiplicity of rates resulted in administrative complexity. This was borugh down to a uniform single rate called CENVAT
• Earlier our tax dept spend rs 1.2 per rupee to collect Tax!!! By leveraging technology and optimising the administrative structure today the cost of collection is 6 paise per rupee
• The tax slabs were reduces encouraging more people to pay taxes. As a result the direct taxes have increased and are today almost equal to indirect tax revenues
• The cascading effect of taxes on industry was corrected by implementing the advalorem taxation system through VAT
So what next?
The next step is to simplify our tax laws. The IT act of 1961 has become voluminous and is not in sync with current demands of economy.
Hence the government is undertaking GST and DTC to put in place a simplified, transparent tax system.
A transparent tax system will lead to a situation where people would start voluntarily filing tax leading to surplus revenue with govt which could be beneficially invested in social sector schemes. This would help in achieving our goal of financial inclusion. It would encourage people to save more leading to higher savings rate and hence promoting investments. This would lead to a great thrust to our economy and will jettision us into the league of developed nations.
So the need of the hour is a swift and smooth passing of DTC and GST bill

India: Bullying a billion

2010-07-07T15:13:00.002+05:30

“Whenever the Indian Prime Minister speaks, the whole world listens to him”-Barrack Obama
The statement was a shot in the arm for the visionary leaders who envisage a vision of India as a superpower by 2020. But they fail to realize that before we can claim a role of superpower, we need to empower our people. Today more than 50% of population lives on less than Rs 20 a day (official figures still show it 26%). The concept of holistic growth and inclusiveness is a far cry from the present Indian system of governance. The hasty legislations have become mere paper tigers. In the absence of proper machinery and infrastructure, many policies like the right to education and setting up of green tribunals are yet to be implemented.
The pompous inauguration of T3 terminal of New Delhi, built in record time of 37 months, lays out a red carpet welcome to all our international guests. At a time when our Human development index is nose diving, child malnutrition is on a rise, we are more worried about getting Indira Gandhi international airport into the top ten airports of the world rather than addressing the problems of the poor.
The constitutional ideals of sovereignty, secularity and democracy are in danger. In the north J&K curfews and stone pelting have become a regular occurrence. The short lived calmness in valley has ended with the mindless shooting and Killings by the paramilitairy forces. Down at Haryana, Khap panchayats are running a parallel judiciary system openly defying the laws of the land. The principles have natural justice have been thrown out of the window in the name of honour of a group of people.
Delhi is busy with arrangements for CW2010. Common wealth games in India was to project india to the world. In this regard a string of welfare and poverty allievation programs should have been taken up. Atleast an effort to alleviate poverty in NCR should have been taken up. Instead they turned a blind eye to it and went on a spending spree to pep up the city for the International event. The RTE act which has the potential to change the future of India has not been implemented owing to lack of funds. I wonder how they were able to pump in crores of rupees in City planning and beautification.
The Bhopal gas tragedy was back in news after 26 years thanks to the inconsequential judgement in Keshub Mahindra case. The government in a bid to console the people of Bhopal gifted them a toothless Green tribunal to resolve any future accidents of such sort.
AP seems to be on a downward spiral under the reign of Rosaiah. Ever since he took over after the shocking demise of YSR, the funds have dried up and its reached near bankruptcy with many welfare schemes being stalled or restricted to certain regions. In a bid to garner the necessary funds for welfare programs, govt came up with idea of selling licenses for liquor shops. What a gem of an idea! Getting funds for welfare programs at the cost of health of its subjects.
The roads of India are one of the dangerous in world. Lack of
i) lane discipline
ii) Safety infrastructure
iii) Stringent rules
have led to accidents which take away lives of 350 people a day. That is equivalent to an plane crash every day. Instead of improving the safety standards of existing roads, the road ministry is busy making up plans of laying another 43000 km of roads and thus laying more deathtraps.
For sure our economy is robust and is leading the world out of recession with its vast experience in monetary and fiscal policy making of a nation of a billion. But it is also a selfish and witty one at bullying the poor and making way for the rich to prosper.

CTS placement

2009-12-11T12:12:00.004+05:30

6th Dec:
After the hectic morning with CAT, evening was also equally busy. I had to pack up for ettimadai. I had a placement process to attend the next day. I packed the best of clothes in my wardrobe, hoping to wear them for the interview if I made it through the apti round. I was ready bu 6 PM. Left hostel by 6:30 pm for the station keeping in view the frequent traffic jams in Bangalore. I picked up my friend on the way and reached station by 7 pm. I had my dinner at comesum and waited for the train. The train arrived on time. But it left after a half hour delay. I slept around ten PM. Thanks to my sony zapper, I had a sound sleep. Later I came to know that my friends couldn’t have a sound sleep as an old lady was crying all through the night.

7th Dec:
The train reached Coimbatore at 6 AM. We got a taxi and reached ettimadai by 7 AM. I got ready by 8 and reached the panthal(a tenthouse for 1500 people) by 8.30 Am. Every participant was given a bar code. It was funny to have a bar code. Bar code is usually given to a commodity. Here we were being identified as commodities and CTS was out on jumbo shopping spree. A lady in suit and boot came up with a boring one hour long pre placement talk. It touched upon all the important points that would woo the prospective candidates. I wasn’t interested in any of them as in the first place I have no plans of taking up a job and secondly I can never work in a company like CTS spending hours together in crammed up offices. Surprisingly the presentation was without a vision or a mission!! Probably they were too interested in wooing us the students than talk about their company in detail. The talk went on till 11 Am and then we were packed off in buses to IT block. We were allotted classrooms in IT block to take up the test. Over there we had to wait for another one hour during which we were told to fill up a sheet of questionnaires. It had the following questions.
Name, tenth and 12th percentages and B.tech aggregate percentage.
Q: strengths and weaknesses
My Ans:S: Will power,perseverance, Adaptability
W:Impatience
Q: What do you think are the requirements for a software engineer?
My ans: I don’t remember the answer
Q: What are your short term and long term goals with CTS?
My Ans:
Short term goal: To continuously upgrade my skills and be part of many a successful projects
Long term goal: To consistently deliver quality services and build a strong and dynamic CTS

And a few more question which I don’t remember.

The test started at 12 PM and went on for another 70 minutes. It comprised of three sections called as
Quantitative aptitude
Verbal ability
Attention to detail
It was not all that difficult to crack but one had to be quick to go through all the questions. We were told the results would be out by 3 PM. About 1500+ people wrote it . Their claim that they would be out with results by 3 PM was impossible. We went to the mess and had our lunch and spent time at cafeteria hoping results would be out by 3 PM. We waited till 4 PM and then went back to our rooms. People had already started preparing for interviews but I was in no mood to study after the gruelling CAT prep . I went around the campus enjoying the cool breeze and scenic surroundings. If CTS recruits me it would most probably be my last trip to this beautiful campus. I still regret not taking up a course at ettimadai. The results were out at around seven thirty in the evening when we were about to leave for dinner. Long namelists(like the ones in railway waitlist) were stuck up on the hostel notice boards. There were hoards of people all around it. I could get a glance of a few sheets but I couldn’t find my name on any of those. But most of my friends found theirs and were enjoying their moment of success. I decided to check my result after dinner. After a quick dinner , we rushed back to the hostel to check if our names were up on the list. Thankfully the crowd had reduced and i could easily skim through all the lists and finally I found mine . I was on panel 29 at 8 in the morning. I was happy that I got a morning slot as I didn’t want to spend nervous moments waiting for my chance. But later I realized that I was the last one in the panel. So I had to endure the long wait. However I would have the advantage of knowing the interviewer and type of question by the feedback I got from people going before me. We got back to our rooms . I spent an hour going through the interview questions to get a feel of the questions being asked. The questions being asked were very basic and sometimes the answer was too obvious. That gave me a lot of confidence. I decided to just go through basics of the subjects which I had stated as my areas of interest.
I spent about three hours with my interview prep. I went to bed by 1 Am

8th Dec:
I got up at 5:30 AM and was ready by 7. I arranged my file ,polished my shoes and left for breakfast by 7:45. The breakfast comprised of distasteful idlis.After the breakfast we proceeded to the IT block. There were in total 50 panels for interviewing over 900 people. The interviews were going to take place in classrooms itself.
It took me sometime to find out where my classroom was. One of my classmate was also on the same panel. Each panel interviewed 9 people per slot. The interviews started 1 and half hour late. Once interviews started , all that we were waiting for was the feedback from people about how their interview was.
The first one to go in was an ECE girl from Coimbatore. She was asked about VLSI and some easy HR. I was happy that he was asking about VLSI as I was quite comfortable with that subject. Next in was an MCA guy with a red tie!! He was asked about the projects done so far. Each interview on an average lasted 10-15 minutes. By the time my turn came I got a fair idea about the interviewer and sort of questions being asked. I hoped that he didn’t change questions for me. And thankfully he didn’t. Herez how my interview went on:
Me: May I come in
(Interviewer(I) gave a slight nod with his head and I walked in as dignified a manner as possible)
He extended his hand for a shake hand.Initially I thought he was asking for my file.After the shake hand I sat down.
He went through the answer sheet and my response to questionnaires and noted down some info from that into another sheet.
I:Okay vaishnov. Tell me about your life so far ie I want to know your family background,schooling,extracurriculars,how u ended in amrita, what did u do in dese 3 years,ur projects etc.
Phew that was a really long question and I had already forgotten what were the points he wanted.
I started framing up the starting sentence.
I wanted a punchline to start with
However that didn’t happen. It was a boring start
Me:
I am from Andhra Pradesh. My dad works in an Public Sector undertaking and hence gets transferred frequently. So I got a chance to do my schooling in different parts of country like kerala,tamil nadu,Andhra and delhi. This gave me an opportunity to understand the different cultures and work with different kinds of people. Coming to amrita errrrrr happened something like this. I saw an advertisement in the newspaper and decided to apply for it and on the basis of my AIEEE rank I got a seat in Amrita Bangalore. My three years at amrita have been wonderful. I got opportunities to interact and work with great minds. I have been to many fests, seminars, workshops and recently I organized Rubik’s cube workshop. It was pretty successful with around fifty people attending it.
I:What workshop you organized?(I guess he didn’t know what a rubik’s was)
Me: Rubik’s cube sir. Its a logical puzzle involving a cube with different colours.
(I guess he didn’t understand what I blabbered)
I:tell me what subjects you studied in your previous sem
Me:Sir. In 7th sem we had subjects like Cellular, management,embedded,biomed,microwave etc.(I purposefully left out VLSI as I didn’t want him to ask any technical questions)
I: Management! What did u study in management?
Me: Sir, management course plan was something like this. It starts of with basics of economics and then goes onto analyse relationship between price demand and supply. We also learnt various HR fundamentals like motivational theories,leadership skills etc.
I: U have one more management subject next sem?
Me: Yes sir.
I:okay. I think you had VLSI last semester. Can you tell me how to detect faults ?
Me: I told all diffrnt types of faults and causes for a few of them. He seemed satisfied with my answer
I: can u explain me chip’s life cycle?
Me: (I didn’t understand what he wanted)Sir u mean the fabrication process??
I:yes yes
Me: I explained something something.
I: Where is silicon wafer used in the process?
Me:Sir, In making silicon layer on substrate.
He asked the question again and I gave the same answer
I: Okay. Now u can leave. All the best for result
Me: Thanks to you and cognizant for giving me this opportunity
I left the hall and phew! it was a great relief.
I went to mess at around 1. Couldn’t find any of my friends. Had lunch and went to my room for a short nap. In the evening went for a stroll. The results were out at around 9 PM. 541 people were selected. The registration numbers were being announced in alphabtcl order. First Amritapuri CSE,ECE,EEE,EIE,MECh. It was a really tense moment for me. Next up was BANGALORE CSE. There were heck a lot of people from CSE and my wait prolonged. Then came ECE. I had to wait a bit longer as my reg no was after 73 people. And alas my number was announced. It was a cakewalk for me as at no point of time I felt I was tested . It was just a matter of getting through the process with a cool mind. That’s how it was for me.

CAT experience

2009-12-11T12:08:00.000+05:30

6th Dec ’09:
After a year of start stop preparation, here I was to write CAT. My centre was RVCE. It is one of the prestigious colleges in Bangalore with state of art infrastructure. Hence I chose it as my centre. I arrived at centre at 7 AM. My dad had arranged for a cab to make my journey to the centre smooth and comfortable.
The security guard informed that entry opens at 8:30. So I spent a boring 1 and half hour in the car. I wasn’t even allowed to explore the sprawling campus. At 8:30 we were allowed to go to the computer centre where our test was going to be administered. There were four labs in which were allotted for the tests. My lab was on the first floor. After a half hour wait in queue a prometric guy allowed us to get in after checking our credentials. I deposited all my belongings at the security and moved to the lab. At the lab, there was a problem with my ID proof. I had taken my college ID as ID proof. My DOB was wrongly printed as 240588 instead of 89. This caused a problem and I was asked to get another id proof. Luckily I had my driving license to prove that I was born in 89. This brought in some nervousness . After that, I had to go through some biometrics and verification for the 3rd time!!
After the three layered check in process I was allotted my seat(S 15). I switched on my PC and there were over a dozen passwords which were keyed in by the proctor before the test interface came up flashing my photo that they took at check in. For another half hour I had nothing to do except for staring at my photo on the screen. At 9:45 were allowed to go through a tutourial video about the test interface.
At 10 Am , the test started off. We had to agree to the customary NDA before we started with our test. The first set of questions were from quant. It was a mixed bag ranging from sitters to complicated questions. It took me around 55 minutes to get throught he quant section. Next up was DI but I decided to skip it and move to verbal as I was tired of calculations that I had done in quant. But verbal gave me no respite. The RC were at its best and to make things difficult , the options were too close to eliminate. None of the options I was sure of. I had to go with a few guesses. Other than that, Parajumbles and Fill in the blanks were of moderate level giving me an opportunity to rush through and make up for the lost time in RC and quant. By the time I was done with verbal section I was left with around 40-45 minutes for DI. The DI however had a lot of sets and required much more time. I had to let go a few sets involving complicated calculations. However the remaining sets were direct and it wasn’t difficult to arrive at an option. On the whole , my CAT experience was like a roller coaster with certain highs and lows. Jan 22nd will determine what were in majority..highs or lows?

BHARATH-A 20Yr Sojourn

2009-11-25T00:14:00.003+05:30

CHAPTER:4

Cochin was a wonderful place right from people to the weather. One good thing about cochin was most of them knew English. Even a butcher knew English! Yes , kerala was truly a highly literate state.

My school "chinmaya vidyalaya" was located in vaduthala. Malayalam was a compulsory subject. However the school authorities relaxed the norms for me. I was allowed to study 1^st standard Malayalam in the first sem following which I was supposed to shift over to 3^rd standard Malayalam in the next two sems. The school had a semester system,where in we had 3 semsters. Each semester ended with a term exam. Once that exam was over the next sem exam didn’t test on the portions that were already tested in 1^st semester. This made things lot easier. The workload was reduced to a great extent. Even the school ended by two. This allowed me to take up some extra curriculars. My dad arranged for a music teacher, though I don’t remember having any keen interest for music. We had to get a harmonium as the music master wanted that as a pre requisite for teaching.

Daily five to seven, I had music classes. It was a big bore. I just went through the moments. I learnt a few ragas and songs for a couple of months and gave up after that. One of my dad’s associates owned a theatre. He used to arrange for movie tickets on weekends. I remember seeing Jurassic park over there.

At school I was completely at ease, Thanks to the cosmopolitan nature of my class. There were people from different places in my class. I had a friend by the name of Abhishek. His father was owner of “Bheema jewelers”. He used to come in chauffeur driven fiat car.He called me amul baby as I was pretty chubby those days. One more good friend of mine was Kartika. She helped out in completing my notes whenever I was absent and helped out a lot during exams.Then there was ameena who I admired for her beauty and brains . She was the topper of the class.

One of my best friends at cochin was shankhar. My mom was strict with regards to my performances in exams. I always feared the results. It was Shankar who used to come to my rescue, most of the times making me understand that I had actually done better than a section of class and there was no need to worry. There were times when he went upto my mom and told her not to scold me. He was one nice guy I regret losing contact with.

Apart from the regular subjects we had crafts, drawing , PT and bhagvad gita. I struggled with drawing and bhagvad gita. Drawing classes were a nightmare . The drawing sheets and crayons were horrifying images for me. In craft class we made various decorative pieces which I still preserve. PT we mostly played dodge ball. Cricket and football were out of bounds for us. It was only for high school.

My mom took great pains in learning Malayalam and then teaching me. She learnt it from the doordarshan teaching channel!! And it began yielding results. I got decent marks in the first semester exams and I made a smooth transition to 3^rd standard Malayalam. Bhagavad gita was really tough. There were 18 chapters and we had to by heart the whole thing and recite the ones the teacher asks. That was a daunting task.

My mom kept herself busy by teaching in a school for mentally challenged. She also learnt car driving though my dad was reluctant to let her drive. We got a sunny and my mom used to drop me at school on that. I enjoyed the drive along the railway track to school.

On independence day, I got my first opportunity to venture into extra curriculars. Having learnt carnatic music for sometime I sang well. So I got a chance to sing “Hind desh ke niwasi”. There was also a fancy dress show and I dressed up as Nehru.

I made couple of friends at HPCL quarters. But I didn’t get to spend much time over there. Occasionally we ventured to the marine drive. The scenic backwaters was a view worth a watch. There was a floating restaurant over there. My other hangout spot was driving park, where I got to drive pedal jeeps and scooters on real roads. It was like real life complete with signals and zebra crossings.

My dad made frequent trips to pune for attending training programs. He got me chocolates from the famous nathu’s sweets over there. I relished them a lot. My pet collection widened with a mini aquarium comprising of fishes and snails. My dad also got a special kind of birds which didn’t fly. We could hold it and play around and they made no fuss about it. But over a period , their wings got strengthened and they managed to fly away.

The love birds met a sad end. One of them died due to ant bites(Bloody ants..i hate them!!). After a few weeks the other one died when a cat attacked and devoured it and left only bones(sob..sob). The fishes were often attacked by the snails. The snails squeezed the fishes to the walls and the fishes died of suffocation. All these were sad moments and we decided not to have any more pets.

My dad wrote CAT and various other MBA exams. He managed to get a seat in Philippines to do MBA. But he let it go as he didn’t want to leave me(love u dad ).

Two years on there was a sudden change in mindset of my dad. Those days I was pretty dependent on my parents and I guess most of them would be at that stage. But probably I was a bit too dependent. I didn’t know how to tie lace(I still don’t know :P), how to wear a shirt and other silly stuff. This made my dad think of putting me in hostel so that I could learn to do things on my own.
One of my dad’s colleague's son was studying in 8^th standard at vijnana vihar in vizag. The friend(jobless fellow!) suggested my dad to put me in the same school as it gave good value education and was disciplined.

There was an entrance exam to be written for getting into the school. And believe it or not .. there was a crash course to crack that exam!! Amazing! people make money out of every damn thing. After my fourth standard I left my great school and friends at cochin. I moved over to vizag and underwent the crash course for half a month. It was a horrifying experience. We were packed into small dark classrooms and made to attempt loads of questions from dawn to dusk. I had made up my mind to fail the test at any cost. But god had different plans I guess. As even my worst performance got me into touching distance of getting admission. I just missed the cut off. My grandfather was Assistant police commissioner at vizag. He put some influence and got me a seat in that dreadful place. I was disappointed as all my plans failed and I had to stay away from my parents for 1 year. It was something I had never imagined of.

My hostel experiences and stay at vizag shall come up in next blog

THE SUNDAY THOUGHTS

2009-11-08T19:20:00.003+05:30

Its been two days since I have seen the sun. There’s been a constant drizzle that’s been knocking my mood off. With three days to go for my end sems to kick off, here I am with nothing else to do but blogging.

Here are a few thoughts of mine that I want to share with u people out there.

I happened to go to a one year old’s birthday party. The joy and happiness that was there over there still lingers on. First birthday is always a special occasion for a child’s parents and family members. I am glad that I got an opportunity to share the joy.I wish there was a flashback option in life to go back and relive all the wonderful moments.

Moving on, this is with regards to the mad football maniacs. I don’t understand the point behind supporting clubs/teams which they can no way connect with in their lives. Being a cricket Fan is a different thing as it is very much part of our life in India and we have people hailing from our places representing the team. But in football you have people from unknown countries playing it out endlessly year after year all for nothing. The intense fan rivalry that is prevalent just irks me. I have no qualms with international football, but club football is something that I hate.

Last but not the least, I came across this startling fact that google keeps tab of all our online activities of not just 1 day or month but 4 long years!! This is a blatant invasion of our privacy and can prove to be serious security threat in case of internet banking and other online transactions. Here are some more details about it. Google has this feature called dashboard where it keeps track of recent visited sites, downloads, mails etc. This it claims it does to show the users relevant advertisements. But it can be misused if it gets into the wrong hands. This is something google must stop.

SACHIN-THE MILESTONE MAN

2009-11-06T08:56:00.004+05:30

"Cometh the hour, cometh the man"

And the man is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Whenever India has been in deep trouble, its often SRT who comes to the rescue. His two decade stay in International cricket has caused no dearth in thirst for runs. He still dismantles the most lethal bowling attack with ease. His 9 centuries against the best team in the world bears testimony to this fact.

On 5^th December 09, the whole world was waiting for the 17000 th run fom sachin's blade. And the moment came when sachin went past the 17k mark. On the other end was Suresh Raina with 1700 odd runs. Such has been sachin's vast experience. He is the messiah of Indian cricket. Even the young blood aren't able to replicate what sachin has done so consistently over the years.

Once sachin went past the 17k mark, people were out planning celebrations. But sachin had his own way of celebratin and that is do what he likes most ie score runs. He scored at a phenomenal rate and the aussies were left gaping at the marvelous strokeplay. He paced his innings perfectly and shifted gears seamlessly.

On a pitch that looked flat as a carom board, Scoring runs was not a problem . But what made sachin special is his meticulous planning of the innings. He made sure the required run rate always hovered around the 7 mark even though wickets were tumbling at the other end.

In 1999 at Chennai , sachin played a similar innings and took India almost to the finish line but his mates faltered and ended up gifting sachin a defeat. I am sure those memories were back haunting him during the last four-five overs. Ten years down the line nothings changed. Sachin departed and his teammates marched behind their great commander.His consistency in giving his wicket off to debutants also remained intact as he paddle scooped a gem of a delivery into the safe hands of Mike hussey.

The 175 will remain a memorable one for the hyderabadis. We are lucky to live in this sachin era. As he moves into the twilight years of his career, I wish him all the luck and hope to see him score a double ton in ODIs.

ATB Sachin!!

Nuclear Disarmament

2009-07-09T15:37:00.000+05:30

The world today is ravaged by wars and terror attacks leaving thousands of earthlings’ grief stricken. It has had a humongous impact on mother nature. During the cold war era, there was a race towards stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction which included nuclear war heads. U S and Russia were the two heavy weights in this nuclear arms race.
In due course many other countries like Britain, France developed nuclear technology. In order to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) was proposed by Ireland and finland .It was opened for signature in 1968, 189 countries signed it. India, Pakistan, Israel and North korea are not parties to it. India did not sign the treaty as it was discriminatory in nature. However india’s nuclear policy shows that India has no intention of waging a nuclear war.
India’s nuclear policy states the following
• Maintaining a credible minimum nuclear deterrence
• No first use
• Non use on non nuclear weapon states
• Voluntary moratorium on further nuclear tests
The contemporary world has become perilous and the threat of nuclear conflict has intensified. Nuclear technology in countries like Pakistan which is among the top ten countries in failed state index, should ring the alarm bells world over. In a country where government doesn’t have strong control on its territory could easily be a safe haven for terrorists. The commingling of terrorists and nuclear weapons will be a deadly mix to handle world over. It could lead to nuclear terrorism(NT). NT denotes the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in acts of terrorism. The situation in Pakistan merits immediate international attention. The whole world must come together and persuade Pakistan to forego their nuclear technology else all wear efforts to curb nuclear proliferation will turn into a damp squib.
Nuclear weapons in Iran could lead to opening up of doors for the Middle -east to nuclear technology.
The first step towards disarmament should start with US and Russia which together have nearly 5000 deployed nuclear war heads. Many steps have been taken in the past for reduction and regulation of nuclear warheads. Prominent among them are
• SALT(Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) in 1972 to freeze ICBMs and SLBMs
• START in 1991
• SORT(Strategic Offensive reduction treaty) in 2002 to reduce nuclear warheads to 1700-2200 by 2012

However with the Bush regime(2000-2008) gave no heed to the treaties between US and Russia. Tensions heightened when US supported the NATO backed Georgia to confront Russia. However Obama seems to be making amends to the mistakes made by Bush. His visit to Russia (6-8 July 09) reignites the hopes that we are heading towards nuclear disarmament. Their respective leaders agreed to limits their warheads to 1675 respectively. As aptly said by Obama that every seed knows its time, the seed has been sown for nuclear disarmament and hopefully it begins to show results soon.

It’s Time for India

2009-07-02T23:11:00.001+05:30

9/11 shook the world for US. It changed the complexion of USA. All of a sudden they went into a shell. Lakhs of people practicing Islam in US were detained as terror suspects and their self-respect was destroyed by their inhumane tortures violating all the human rights. Moving ahead , they launched a full fledged assault on Afghanistan and extended their war to Iraq and are now threatening to unleash another carnage on Iran.
India stands in complete contrast with US. We have weathered umpteen number of attacks and still have patience to wait for Pakistan to make amends. Though we have enough evidence to pin point the culprits we still refrain from taking stern action. Its time we change our foreign policy and take a aggressive stance. We are one of the leading economies in the world. We have the largest armies in the world. But still we keep our armies tied to their bases.
We are in a corridor of high risk. With two volatile nations(Pakistan, Bangladesh) at our door step. Its time we strengthen our entry points. We have been on the defensive for the past six decades. China’s string of pearls strategy threatens to isolate india from the world and can turn dangerous if not tackled. The fragile srilanka is just a stone’s throw away from our southernmost tip and we can expect any retaliatory attacks from factions like LTTE.
In these times, it’s imperative that India show its might on the army front. We need to showcase our military power to the world in order keep nations like china and US at bay. One of the best and apt ways is to attack Pakistan. This would help in capturing all the terror camps in Pakistan and bring the cross border terrorism to an end.
To take such tough decisions, we need to have young and dynamic people in the defence minister’s chair. People like A K Anthony are good for presiding over ceremonies. I am sure he will be found wanting in case of a war.

Taliban Resurgence

2009-06-10T13:26:00.000+05:30

The Taliban was founded by Mullah Mohammed Omar. It was formed at a time when Afghans were being tormented by the Mujahideen warlords. As a result Taliban enjoyed enormous support among the afghans initially. Taliban managed to alleviate afghans by subduing the influence of Afghan warlords. However they later revised their goals and decided to overthrow the afghan government as they were against the secular nature of the government.

Taliban got a major impetus from US during the cold war era when US used Taliban as a shield to prevent soviet union from occupying Afghanistan. This was the period when Osama bin laden rose in stature. Osama came down from sudan and forged relationship with Omar. Thus Taliban and Al-qaeda came together. US poured funds and arms into Afghanistan and by 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war. With the help of their burgeoning resources thanks to the backing of CIA and ISI they managed to capture Kandahar in 1994 and Kabul in 1996 and thus took control of government in Afghanistan. The Taliban implemented one of the "strictest interpretations of Sharia law ever seen in the Muslim world".

After the cold war, US deserted Taliban and left Taliban to fight out on its own. The aid stopped coming and this irked the leaders of Taliban. They decided to wage war against the western world through al-qaeda. This resulted in attacks on US and various other countries by way of attacking establishments, abduction and execution of citizens. The flash point in US Taliban relationship was when an al-qaeda attack bulldozed world trade centre which was the heart of US business world.

The Taliban refused to extradite Osama Bin Laden who was believed to be the mastermind behind the attack. US along with its allies launched a major offensive against Taliban in 2001. The stated intent of military operations was to remove the Taliban from power because of the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden for his alleged involvement in the 11 September attacks, and disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations. On 14 October 2001 the Taliban offered to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country if the US halted bombing, but only if the Taliban were given evidence of Bin Laden's involvement in 9/11. The U.S. rejected this offer as an insufficient public relations ploy and continued military operations. The war resulted in decimation of Taliban cadres in Afghanistan and the disappearance of Osama bin laden. Following this war against Taliban , a democratic government was established with Hamid Karzai as the head of government. The strength of Taliban in Afghanistan was reduced drastically.Despite the complete dismantling of terror infrastructure in Afghanistan, Taliban managed to cling on by way of guerilla attacks on various government establishments.

After the invasion, the Taliban managed to regroup by drawing in new recruits from the madrasas in pashtun dominated regions. The Taliban resurgence had begun. This has been confirmed by the ground forces at Afghanistan who claim that they are losing control of their respected areas. The most notable sign was the rioting in May after a street accident in the city of Kabul. The continued support from tribal and other groups in Pakistan, the drug trade and the small number of NATO forces, combined with the long history of resistance and isolation, leads to the observation that Taliban forces and leaders are surviving and will have some influence over the future of Afghanistan.

The pashtun dominated SWAT valley in Pakistan had provided greener pastures for Taliban. The Taliban has managed to groom many terror organizations like Let, Jud which are a major threat for our nation. The complete implementation of Sharia law in SWAT is a sign of the presence of Taliban in Pakistan.

On February 11 2009, the Taliban struck at three government buildings, including that of the Ministry of Justice, in the heart of Kabul, killing 20 persons. More than 50 were injured in the attacks, in which explosives and Kalashnikov rifles were used; eight gunmen were killed by the Afghan security forces. The February 11 attacks, hoodwinking all the security deployment in most of Kabul, cannot be viewed in isolation. There have been indiscriminate kidnapping adventures by the Taliban and its associates in the neighbouring regions of Pakistan, especially in the Swat valley of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), which is virtually under militant control despite a huge Pakistani Army presence.
Pakistan has apparently launched an offensive against Taliban in SWAT valley and is believed to have made some progress in SWAT. However these reports can’t be trusted consider the dubious nature of Pakistan. Taliban though had no hard feelings against India in the initial years, the recent suicide attack on Indian embassy shows the growing growing hostility between India and Taliban. It’s time we step up and make ourselves well equipped to fight Taliban as we can’t afford one more Mumbai.

POETIC RUMBLINGS

2009-05-29T22:33:00.002+05:30

hi ppl. Takng a break frm my autobiography as i am busy travelling. Howeva i have made up a poem and here it comes

I lived a life of single ready to mingle
Until I met u at the Christmas jingle
When you walk past fore
U usher in a freshness never felt before
U leave a fragrance behind
That ll remain long to remind
u are the most beautiful person
That I have stood to see under the sun
I might seem drunk
But the truth is I am sunk
In the ocean of Love
For you my dear dove

BHARATH-A 20yr Sojourn

2009-05-22T20:27:00.001+05:30

CHAPTER 3
After 3 years of schooling(UKG-2nd) at ARLM , I adjusted to the new place and people . I enjoyed my schooling @ cuddalore. Though my home was near the quite and deserted sea shore I did not like venturing near the shore. I used to watch only English movies in the only AC theatre over there. For some unknown reasons I feared the waves and never dared go close to it. However I did garner courage and venture into the shores with some of my relatives when they came down to my house. But I slipped and fell down and the waves completely overwhelmed me. I thought I was drowning but it was just a high tide. This scared me out of my pants and my fear heightened.

My dad got me lovebirds from Pondicherry. We got a large blue customized cage for the two birds. I enjoyed watching them play around and fight among each other. Apart from that I liked torturing the Ants(Both red and black). I liked trapping them in transparent boxes and feed them with sugar and other eatables. I then poured water into the boxes and saw them drowning to death. With the black ants it was much more fun. The black were aggressive then the red ants and i used to force them to fight against each other. I used to play around with gi-joes which I had bought on my trips to Chennai. During my summer holidays after my 2nd standard I went on my first flight(Air India) from Chennai to hyderabad. Though a short flight the experience was exhilarating. Today after som many flights , that first flight still remains special .

After 1 month into third standard, I got a jolter. My dad got transfer orders to move to Cochin. I was shocked by this sudden change that was going to come in my life. The fact that I had to leave the wonderful place and people should have saddened me. But somehow the joy of moving to a new place was more than the sorrow of leaving of Cuddalore. I packed my things and set out on a journey to my new residence. I forgot to mention about the vehicles that we had. When we came to cuddalore we had a customized maruti car with a wonderful AC and power windows making it one of the very few luxury cars in town. After a few years we bought a second hand Fiat(premier padmini). It was a car that was used by Rajiv Gandhi during his campaigning in Tamil Nadu. We drove all the way from cuddalore to Cochin in our new fiat car. The AC was so powerful that after a few hours ice particles started coming out of it during our journey to Cochin. We reached Cochin after a 14 hour long journey. As the academic year had already started, getting seat in a school was tough. However my dad managed to get me a seat in one of the prestigious schools in City. My school was Chinmaya Vidyalaya. It was a school run by Chinmaya Mutt . It was mutt formed my H H Chinmayananda Swamiji. We managed to get a home near the school. My school was in vaduthala. My home was in SRLM cross roads near pachalam market. The area where we were staying was known as Ernakulam. I believe Cochin was far from there.
The House we were staying in was a two storey house with a slanted roof which was characteristic of houses in Kerala. We stayed in the first floor. Our owners stayed in the ground floor . The birds enjoyed seemed tired after the long journey and didn’t chirp much for the first few days. My school was just a few meters away from my home. So not much travelling had to be done. Even my dad’s office was nearby but he had to go through a railway crossing which was closed most of the time which resulted in him being late most of the times.
In the next chapter I will discuss about my schooling and the exciting times that I spent at cochin.

BHARATH- A 20yr sojourn

2009-05-19T14:32:00.003+05:30

CHAPTER 2:

1991-1995

I had to undergo some tough times at NSM with the strict regimen in place over there. The bad handwriting that I possess, I have to put the blame on the teachers of NSM. However the times I spent at home was wonderful. My mama(Mom’s brother) who was doing his engineering at Nagpur used to bunk his classes and kept coming back to Vijayawada to spend time with me. I enjoyed the times I spent with him. Eventually he ended up discontinuing engineering and a part of the blame has to be taken up by me. Having toiled for two long years at NSM I moved out when my dad got transferred to Cuddalore. A small town with an amazing sea shore. I got myself admitted into the best school over there. It goes by the name of Arcot Rama Linga Mudhaliar public school. It was a school that reflected the sorry state of the place. Small rooms covered with thatched roof made up the class rooms. I resumed my schooling over there and started off with UKG. Those were very long days at school. I was at school from 8 Am to 4 PM. My home was pretty large and had a large back and front yard. The backyard was a regular visiting place for frogs and snakes. I was brave enough in those times as I used to roam around in backyards all alone even at nights. At times frogs managed to creep into the bathroom and I enjoyed killing them by pouring some hot boiling water on them. My neighbors were very kind and helpful. I spent most of my evenings in their homes. I learnt how to play carroms from them. My mode of communication with my friends was English and I don’t know how much they understood of what I said. In classrooms every bench was occupied by a boy and a girl. I ended up sitting beside a fat girl. I don’t remember her name, however I remember the nickname(Jayalalitha) that I gave her. We used to fight with each other and frequently disturbed the class and ended up most of the times out of the class. At home, my mom forced me to sit down and study daily.

As a result I ended up with some impressive report cards which I still preserve.I studied over there till 2nd standard. Since Tamil was a compulsory subject at school. I ended up learning Tamil. During weekends I forced my dad to take me to Pondicherry(now puducherry) which was around 20 Kms from there. I enjoyed my weekends at Pondicherry. I spent most of the time at boat club where I got a chance to ride a speedboat. It was wonderful to zip through in the high seas of bay of Bengal. For diwali holidays I went to hyderbad to celebrate diwali with my cousins. Celebrating diwali with my cousins was a customary and I enjoyed de diwalis at Hyderabad. For summer holidays I ended up most of the times at ooty or kodaikanal. Kodaikanal was a boring place for me as there was nothing over there for me to play or enjoy. Ooty was a place I still enjoy. The resorts over there were amazing and the weather in those times sans global warming was cool. I enjoyed the rides in the toy train over there.

Occasionally I made visits to madras. I hated the weather and traffic over there. However toys available over there were nice, my favourite being the remote controlled cars. Also I started off with a hobby and that was stamp collection. I also went for some tennis coaching though never mastered the game. I am not able to recollect the names of my friends however they were all very nice people .

BHARATH –A 20yr Sojourn

2009-05-18T11:58:00.009+05:30

So far I have talked about general topics in my blog. Today I am going to start off a series of osts about me and my life. Hope it makes an interesting read.
I am dividing it into 3 parts:
Ancient Bharath(1989-1995)
Medieval Bharath(1995-2001)
Modern Bharath (2001-present day)

Ancient Bharath is a period which I don’t remember. Whatever I know is by way of what my parents told me.
Ancient Bharath:
1989-1991:

On 24th may 1989 I was born In Kakinada at a hospital whose name I don’t remember. Kakinada being the place where my great grandparents were staying. After a week of my birth I set off on a journey to Vijayawada to my home sweet home. I have been told that it was a long difficult journey in a stormy weather.

In fact after a few days the road which we came by was completely inundated. After a few months I shifted to an apartment where I became connoisseur of all eyes. All my neighbours made regular visits to my house to play around with me. Unlike most toddlers of present day I was fond of milk. This earned me de nick name of Milk Tanker.

My first birthday was celebrated in a grandway on a rooftop restaurant. All my far, near and dear came down to celebrate my completion of first revolution around the fireball called sun.

My second year was spent in playing around with toys and breaking stuff at home. I was giving my parents tough times. As they say idle mind is devils workshop. Probably I was behaving devilish. This made my parents decide on putting me in school as early as possible.

Very soon my 2nd birthday was nearing and this time my birthday celebrations were subdued because of Rajiv gandhi’s assassination just days before my birthday. As a result there was curfew and somehow my dad managed to get a plum cake and celebrate in the best way possible. This birthday marked the end of my jolly and free life. I was sent into a Christian missionary school called NSM public school. The teachers were all scary with their long white gowns. They resembled devils and I was petrified and terrified by them.

This was how my 1st bday party invitation looked like:

"Dear uncle,

As i am completing 365 days of my arrival on 24th May 1990. I am inviting you to my birthday party along with aunty and my sweet little friends at Vijaya Krishna roof top restuarant .

I promise not to wet your clothes

Note: I do not like gifts

Bharath Vaishnov"

THE ELECTION FESTIVAL

2009-04-06T23:59:00.001+05:30

Its election time again. The banners are out, all roads are decked up with placards of different parties vying for space on the sides of roads. The netas are busy trying to woo their voters and at the same time their high command to secure a ticket for themselves. The people of lower strata are all busy going from one meeting to another earning the dearest thing FOOD and alcohol. There is no better time for the poor in India than in election time. It opens up a plethora of opportunities to make money. Every party woos them by way of money or morsel. It is truly festival for the poor. I am sure they must be hoping for elections to be held every day .

Thanks to our lethargic middle class and biased upper class who stick to their own parties irrespective of the prevailing situation, the only segment left out to exploit is the poor. Its amazing to see how the life of people changes come election season. My parents stay at Anantapur , a place 250Km off Bangalore in Andhra Pradesh. Usually whenever I go home , I return back by cab. This cab guy always used to crib about getting no business in anantapur. But with elections at the helm , he is completely busy chauffeuring nethas and attending their functions.

There are many more instances where people who were jobless are now juggling between various election works for various parties. The cropping up of myriad parties has done them a world of good as their value is heightened. The poor have become items of auction with various parties throwing in their bids by way of promises and perks.

The alliance dynamics has brought on a new dimension to this already vibrant elction season. The various permutations and combinations that are coming up has left people in a discombobulation. The coming together of yadavs and paswans in UP-BIHAR segment is a classic example. The traditional rivals have all of a sudden forged friendly ties. This election for sure is turning out to be a colorful canvas. But my only worry is will this canvas give us clear picture ?. Come 16^th May we will get to know what the canvas has to show us.

SLUMDOG:A dilemma for India

2009-03-05T11:32:00.000+05:30

Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscars. Congrats to both Rahman and Rasul for winning the same. It was a well made film and good creativity was seen in the entire film. It’s also possibly the best marketed film but the question is how did the film project India?
The moment I think about SM, the scene that strikes my mind is the kid jumping into the shitpool for the autograph of an actor .It is completely absurd and it clearly shocked me not because it doesn’t happen here but how it shows India in poor light. The film’s entire narration seems like the germination of a terribly sadistic and complex mind with the sole aim of satisfying the western idea of India – and its new found growth instincts at their cost - and it is done through a combination of illogical happenings in order to show everything in a disgustingly negative vein. The accolades of the Oscar projecting the movie as “the world taking note of India”. Is this what we wanted to show them? doesn’t a country with leading space technology, nuclear power and IT excellence deserve more?
In truth, about 65 million Indians live in slums around India and this includes migrants from neighbouring countries. It is a sad reality, and undoubtedly something to be moved by and ashamed of. But, taken in the context of a billion Indians, it is easy to see that India has a lot more to it than abysmal poverty and mindless villainy that the movie uses as a leitmotif.
In the past we were the land of maharajas,philosophers and sages. Now we have a new status. We are land of beggars, stealers and child racketeers.
So if a foreigner tomorrow asks me whether children swim in shit-ponds in India what can I say, for it is the image created in the western world.
Surely we can take pride of Rahman who is extremely talented and Rasul too. But was this the right way to win an Oscar? Danny Boyle’s film had brought some cheers to the foreigners reeling under recession and wanting to blame India for all their worries.
Director Danny Boyle’s tributes to the Mumbai spirit and the Indian artists in the movie has been generous. His career and those of the lucky winners will be star-studded. And as the flavour of the season, Bollywood itself is living its own “Bollywood dream” at the moment – of making it big in Hollywood.

But for the little Indian “slumdogs” who have given the movie its soul, this is a fleeting moment. For when the clock strikes midnight, these people who have helped create many millionaires around the world will return to their tarpaulin-roof homes, to take their usual place beside their colleagues, too proud and too dignified to “ask for more”. City of Joy has done little for Kolkatta (Calcutta), and Slumdog Millionaire will do little for Dharavi.

LOVE*

2009-02-13T23:23:00.001+05:30

Tomorrow happens to be the Valentine's Day. It's a day dedicated to the goddess of love. Love certainly is a wonderful thing. It brings immense pleasure and joy. The feeling of love flows through all living beings. It's one of the few traits that can be observed in all sorts of beings. The interesting thing is this feeling can be expressed across different species. It's a well known fact that dogs show their love and affection to their masters in a very animated manner. Love apart from air is a pre-requisite for any creature. Without love and affection it's impossible to endure the tough challenges in life.

When I say love, I mean the unconditional love(The love that a mother shows to her child) Unfortunately such love is rare to come by in this present scenario. As we get more mechanical day by day wearing different masks of expression we are also losing our natural ways of expressing emotions- A boon bestowed on humankind. Today there is selfishness everywhere. Every act is scrutinized from the angle of profit and loss.

Even the religion that is supposed to spread love and peace across the width and breadth of human race is getting diverged from its motives and purposes due to some vilifying agents. People are fighting among themselves in the name of religion. Religion has become a medium to fragmentize the society.

Much to the charging our society, people like Pramod Muthalik keep cropping up who take upon themselves the task of moral policing and vandalizing the youth of our country. Youth are very important part of our yet to be developed society. Times have changed and so have the customs and traditions. Clinging on to the obsolete standards of society and trying to compare with the present day is senseless and flawed. Mr. Muthalik needs to realize that Hinduism is a very tolerant religion that has space for everyone and anyone. Our manuscripts are humongous and one requires a complete understanding of it to get the essence of Hinduism. Reading a part of it and formulating own opinions may prove detrimental and disastrous.

*No conditions applied

2008-12-19T18:27:00.001+05:30

4100 Terror Attacks in 34 years. India scared and scarred

Welcome to India, the land of the Indus, the land of snake charmers , the land of urbanization and now the harvesting land for the marauders of death. The stats put out in the header are something special of India. These attacks have claimed over 12k lives officially and around 70k unofficially. This puts us next to only Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of no of casualties due to terrorism and barbarism.

This is thanks to some very efficient (sic) administration and governance. The recent Mumbai attacks bear testimony to this. The cue about this attack was made available way back in feb but our very innocent police officers couldn't decipher the cues in time. Our political top brass is busy meddling with internal matters and solving the ultra complex caste equations. The administration is completely disconnected from reality and follows a plan laid out way back in the 1940's. Our security forces carry arms that are no different from the one's used during the world war II's and probably older than that.

Ultimately the whole blame falls on our inefficient political fraternity. But we need to introspect on what we as public have contributed to the government in these 6 decades. The only responsibility which we have fulfilled is the vote our representatives. What about our responsibilities of guiding our governments, allowing our security forces to function in an efficient and transparent manner? These are some of the things on which we fall short. We need to step up to the plate and act as responsible citizens.

No doubt Pakistan is a breeding ground for terrorism and we are definitely their targets. Taking these into considerations its imperative on part of US the citizens of India to follow the rules laid out by our law enforcing agencies and help , guide our institutions in this war against TERROR. Lets take a pledge today for the good of our country.

We the people of India solemnly pledge to make no fuss

When security personnel frisk us

At malls,railway staions and other locations

We pledge not to bribe anyone when and

Honestly pay the fine

We pledge to Inform the police

About any lapse in security measures

We pledge no to damage any security infrastructures(CCTVs,Barricades)

We pledge not to create create tensions on the basis of cast,creed and religion

We pledge to help our country in any possible way in this fight against TERROR

DE INDIAN GOVTs -ander ki baath

2008-12-12T21:12:00.002+05:30

My take on how decisions r made in indian govt. Itz prbbly my 1st fictnl wrk. Hope 2 get some commetz abt my wrk.Dis is episode 1. derez more 2 follow

Manmohan Singh(MS) :

Sonia ji kya karien. Bahut badhi musibath aa gayi. Log hamare piche padien hain. Kuch karna hoga.

Sonia Gandhi(SG)

Stay calm MS ji. I ll take care of de situation. U please maintain ur composure and don't give any inflammatory statements in de press.

MS:datz k SG ji. I have got used to it all these years. But the problem now is we need to answer the public now. The public mood is hostile and if we don't take swift action den de situation may go out of control.

SG:

Phew. U bureaucrats r so apprehensive about the public. Cmon MS ji grow up. U r a politician now. U r de head of the UPA govt. We have our leaders in every nook and corner of the country. They have the caliber to mould the public mood as per our will .

MS:

Really!!! Datz gr8. Howz dat possible SG ji? I am really curious.

SG:

Datz something very very intricate . Itz Indian politics not economics. U stick 2 ur economics while I look into politics.

MS:

SG ji if u don't mind can I ask u a question. This is something I have long been wanting to ask.

SG:

Go ahead MS ji. Y u so hesitant. Atleast we need to be transparent if not our govt.

MS:

K . I have been bamboozled by the rapid rise of urs in Indian politics. And not only that u have taken up de mantle of a age old party. I know the aura of Gandhis. But how did u manage to straight away take over and manage Indian politics. Coz unlike ur predecessors of Gandhi clan who had a decent enough exposure to daily chores of Indian politics. But u as far as I know never was intrstd in politics when ur mother in law and ur husband were at the helm.

SG:

Hehe. Nice 1 MS ji. Datz something I am sure is dere evry1s mind. But u r de first person to get dat out of ur mind. Hmmm k. 1^st u need 2 understand this MS ji. U were r8 when u said I had no intrst in politics at dat time. Even aftr my husband's death , I neva wantd to enter into this.

But in the late 90s I got a sudden urge to follow de footsteps and get my family bak into limelight. Ofcourse initial impetus was given by u congressmen. I would like to disclose this to u and now 1 more thing. Dis needs to be very confidential. U r neva gng to let this out to ny1.

MS:

Sure Sonia ji.

SG:

K de thing is even now I run it not on my own.

Weneva a prblm arises I fall back on my core group dat includes u,pranab,arjun and other stalwarts of congress. I give some touch ups and put that in2 action. Datz de simplicity in execution.

MUMBAI MASSACRE

2008-12-01T16:33:00.001+05:30

Terror made its arrival on the land of Indus in grandeur by attacking some of the most opulent hotels of the financial capital of India. The long and unending debate on the rise of terrorism in India has been put to an end with this attack which marks the pinnacle of the terror activity in India. What now seems more like one of the J&K hostage dramas is spilling over and threatens to destroy the Mumbai city. The attack on Taj and Oberoi (Trident) hotels were followed by attacks on railway station and CAMA hospital.
The busy and bustling Mumbai came to a screeching halt in the wee hours and unlike other terror attacks this one has refused to fade away as the terrorists made themselves comfortable in these five-star landmarks. I don’t know where and how these people managed to sneak in. Reports have been pouring in saying they came by a merchant ship from Karachi, some reports say they came from Gujarat and some say they hailed from Hyderabad AP.
But what have been ghastly annoying are the lackadaisical security measures in these important areas which are frequented by the high class society. The terrorists did not SNEAK but royally entered into the busy corridors of Mumbai city. This very fact is something that’s very disturbing and leaves me with no hopes from our security personnel.
My misery deepens by the way the Home minister gave a cold shoulder to this event of utmost concern. His press conference was completely emotionless and his words were meaningless and of no significance. The way the things shaped clearly showed the gaping holes in our security cordon. The death merchants managed to breach the Indian coastal borders in their merchant ships carrying tonnes of ammunition. They managed to dock at one of the busiest areas of Mumbai city i.e. near the Gateway of India.
Having docked there they unloaded the deadly stuff while many a onlookers just kept staring at it. I guess some suspecting peoples complaints fell in the deaf ears of Mumbai police. This proved too costly and the repercussions were felt in the very heart of Mumbai. What started off with ‘93 bombings slowly improvised into what was a concentrated attack on the Mumbai metro and now has culminated in a full-fledged attack on Mumbai . The fact that the terrorists went about with their infiltration process without any fuss makes things messier. This leaves us with a knee jerk feeling of hatred and frustration. While the world is waging a war on terror, the terror is waging a war on our Beloved city of Mumbai. This attack am sure has moved every Indian heart. This is an issue of great international concern after all Mumbai was an international destination for many.
There have been parallelisms drawn with 9/11 of USA. For me, this incident has been much graver than what 9/11 was. One reason is this incident has stretched over a period of two days. For the first time people have come in direct contact with the face of terror. This has created a trauma and sense of insecurity which is difficult to overcome. 9/11 just was an incident that spanned over a few hours. But the response from the government machineries were completely in contrast with what was seen in case of Mumbai. While in New York the relief work started off in half an hour, in Mumbai it took more than 7 hours for the NSG to be summoned in.
The appalling delay in relief work had a detrimental effect and resulted in an exponential increase in number of casualties. In spite of all these , our politicians refuse to take the blame and shy away from their responsibilities even in this hour of deep crisis. Terrorist activities have spread across the width and breadth of the country from Mumbai to Guwahati and Kashmir to Bangalore.
After a 60 hour long battle against the immensely skilled and heavily armed terrorists, Mumbai was liberated from the clutches of the grim world of terrorism. But the objective of the terrorists was more or less fulfilled. No one in Taj Mahal hotel was spared. From bell boy to barrister everyone were shot at mercilessly. The tales that are spilling over about the survivors and the brave warriors are filled with agony and anguish. The public mood is hostile and politics has to take a backseat else it’s going to get a beating.
Politicians need to be mature enough to not try and take political mileage in this hour of grief and mourning. This terror strike has left us with no hope from our security and intelligence agencies. Even a faintest of idea , we could have sealed the coast of Mumbai and nabbed the bloody terrorists right at the foot step of Mumbai and all this ruckus wouldn’t have been there.
A holistic approach needs to be taken up and measures put in place to not let events like these to recur. Only then will the politicians be able to satiate the expectations of the billion denizens of this great country.

This is a piece that I came across in anews channel. A young man was holding a poster having the following words:
Mr.Terrorist: I am alive. What can you do?
Mr.politician:I am alive DESPITE you.
This piece summarizes to mood of the Indian public. This incident is something that we should never forget. For all the innocents who laid down their lives, For the brave mumbaikars who had to go through this unending misery, For the brave jawans and last but not the least our beloved TAJ , we need to take this battle to its rightful end and bring all the traitors to the court of law.

MAY MUMBAI AND TAJ REGAIN THE GLORY!!

A World Without religion-Perdition or Paradise

2008-10-13T23:23:00.000+05:30

There seem to be an awful lot of people out there who think the world would be better off without religion. I don't mean less religion in politics or schools, I mean none at all. Frued is an example, he says that religion is a kind of nuerosis. A kind of child like condition much like that of a teddy bear that a child sleeps with to keep the boogie man away. Frued predicts that one day mankind, like the child, will finally realise how silly religion is and discard it like a child who no longer needs teddy. He said that we would leave religion, and replace it with reason and science.
There are a couple of problems with this however. Science cannot account for certian things that people must have some kind of answer for. Things like: How was the universe created? What happens when we die? Another thing science and reason cannot do is define the "objective good". What is "good"? When we say something good what do we mean? I would argue that we get our sense of "good" from our respective religions. No matter your faith, almost all religions say essentialy the same thing about how to treat your fellow man and what the difference is between right and wrong. For that matter if we cannot define "good", how can we say something is "better" than something else? Because "better" is the comparative form of "good" and we cannot define the objective good with some kind of transending "good", like we get from God, we would not be able to compare things as "better than" or "worse than" since those ideas would have to be completely subjective to he(or she) who making the comparison. I will argue that without any idea of objective good, man will lose any notion of alltruism and mankind as a whole will fall into a sort of Hobbsian state of nature. Of course in this cas the word "good" would not disappear, it would simply mean "good for me." In which case the entire social contract will change. No longer would you respect others' right live or pursue his or her own happiness, the rule of "might makes right" would envelope the human race and we would inherently lose our humanity. People would become animals, doing only what they must to survive and perpetuate the species.
I know this sounds like an extreme idea but think about it, is it really so so hard to imagine? Look at the wolrd we live in today as apposed to the one your grandparents grew up in. Today material goods, money, and fame are glorified instead of things like, charity, ethics, honesty, hard work, and humility. Now you have to worry about what shoes to buy, what celebrity did what, how can I best benefit myself as apposed to those around me? I would argue that mankind right now is headed down a path that going to a place very dark and hotile. We certainly won't see it, and mostly likely nor will our chilldren, but generations in the future will. We must stop this social decay gripping our nation and world for that matter.

RUCKUS OVER RELIGION

2008-10-08T19:34:00.000+05:30

India boasts of being a nation that provides shelter to people of different races and religion . We all know the phrase "Unity in diversity" that has been iterated myriad times in our social studies books during our schooling. But are we really living in peace with people of different religions.This is what i have been introspecting, ever since I had seen namaste london. Akshay enlightens the english men who still feel India is land of snake charmers with some wonderful patriotic dialogues. The dialogue that stands out is "India has a culture where a catholic women steps aside for a sikh to be sworn in as a PM by a Muslim president for a nation of over 80% hindus".
But is there same amount of tolerance amongst the public? That’s the question that needs to be answered. Though we live in peace with people of different cultures and religion, there is every chance for violence to erupt on religious grounds any moment. The religious and chauvinist groups are tightening the noose. The society is becoming increasingly intolerant when it comes to religious issues. Any trespassing is strictly looked down upon. A single instance of disrespect to a particular sect is enough to get the religious and chauvinist groups to get onto the streets and kick of a violent protest. The local administration doesn’t have enough teeth to tackle these issues thanks to the increasing interference of politicians who prefer to keep themselves away from any issues concerning violence on religion. Even the court is unable to play a role as the police in most of the cases fails to make thorough investigation fearing a backlash.
The godhra riots, massacring of Sikhs in the streets of national capital, the large scale violence at Sisar over inter sect issues have all caused large scale damage and left indeliblescars. Each and every time such incident has happened , it went uncontrolled and threatened to spread to other regions. I believe there is still tension among people of different religion. Indians definitely are lot more sentimental but this needs to be controlled or things might turn worse in future. The government needs to be unbiased in situations involving religious clashes. They need to get the vandals of peace to court. This definitely is a problem whose solution can’t be worked out by discussing in closed rooms. It’s a problem whose solution gets tougher as time passes by. We have all lived in harmony all these years. But when someone causes harm to religious beliefs , emotions take over and its almost a reflex action to attack other sects. It’s a problem unique to our country and the society has to come out with a solution.

CARBON TRADING

2008-07-01T12:35:00.001+05:30

Katrina, Nargis well known pulchritudinous movie stars of Bollywood in India are better known t in the world as the horrendous hurricanes that wreaked havoc in one of the most developed(USA) and under developed regions(Myanmar) respectively.There has been an alarming rise in the GHGs(green house gases) and this has augmented global warming. At this rate snow at the poles will disappear by September 2060 and will submerge all the coastal metropolises.
A month ago world environment week was observed. All the 24X7 news channels painted green and flashed environment sensuous stories and highlighted the good deeds of the very few Indian environmentalists. NDTV went a step ahead and kicked a nationwide hunt for environmentalist. A few weeks later the IIFA selected environment as its theme. The stars were welcomed on to the green carpet replacing the traditional red carpet. But all these acts wont help save mother nature. What is required is a sincere and dedicated effort.
But a large chunk of world population is self centered. They do acts with the results in mind. Very few people would be ready to do selfless acts. Having realized this , a novel idea was born during world earth summit 1997 at Kyoto , Japan. Ideas like dreams are unbelievably romantic. The idea was “Carbon trading” that lay its foundation on “Earn by giving” .
Unfortunately this idea hasn’t been well received by India. Though this idea was mainly for the developed countries to regulate their GHG emissions, it can help alleviate the problem of poverty in India. Most of you must be wondering how carbon in any way is linked to poverty. Let’s see how carbon trading can be beneficial to India.
First, we need to know what carbon trading is all about. Through carbon trading a firm or individual gets monetary reward for the amount of carbon emissions prevented. Now how can a individual or a firm prevent emissions. Its not something about going about with awareness campaigns and appealing to the public to reduce the usage of automobiles and other things that result in carbon emissions. It’s something that can be done by YOU in your backyard and neighbourhood. The best way to prevent carbon emission is plant trees. We all know that it’s the best way but we lack the motivation and dedication to plant and take care of the trees since there is no instant return that one gets for planting a tree. This where carbon trading can play an important role . Carbon trading can provide the motivation for planting trees. As we all know the process of photosynthesis that takes place in plants can absorb certain amount of carbon dioxide in atmosphere and give back oxygen. Hence a plant can reduce carbon emissions. So the more you plant trees the more is the carbon emissions prevented the more you get paid. Some NGOs have been authorized for carbon trading. Each tree’s carbon content is transformed into carbon credits by these NGOs. These credits can be traded in the international market by the owner of the trees. The present rate is 15-20$ per ton of sequestered carbon.
Now the question arises that who will be interested in buying these credits? During the World Earth summit , all the industries in developed countries were told to regulate their carbon emissions to a certain decided level , failing which the defaulting company will have to pay a huge penalty. For example say a power generation company generates 100000 tonnes carbon and approved emission standard is 80000 tonnes of carbon then the company buys the remaining 20000 carbon credits from the international market which allows the company to raise the bar to 100000 tonnes. It is a win-win situation for both the buyer and seller.
A hectare of land under forest cover can generate 300000 US$. This can help the tribal organization to be self sufficient. Even a person in urban area can get 200-300 US $ by planting trees. So start planting and earning. Carbon trading can make our country and lives green. The environment ministry should raise to the occasion and start promoting carbon trading in our country.

DO WE NEED A DEVELOPED NATION?

2008-06-22T12:20:00.002+05:30

I am blessed to live in a world where technology has become a part and parcel of daily life. I have personal laptop to hang out with and vent out my views any time, to keep in touch with all my friends in an economical way, have a air conditioned room to shield myself from harsh weathers outside. But in this fast paced track of development boosted by the burgeoning IT and BPOs and an increasingly materialistic society I feel we are losing out far too many than what we are gaining. India has made a leap to become a developed nation a bit too early. Rewind back 3 decades and we were nowhere near to claiming that we were a developing nation. There was political instability, famines and many other problems, peace was hindered by frequent wars. Farmers were forced to end their lives owing to failure of crops due poor irrigation facilities. Then came the GREEN REVOLUTION which changed India’s fortunes. There was a boost in crop productivity and the government of the day responded favorably by introducing farmer friendly policies. This made India one of the leading food producers in the world. India had finally achieved food security. Having achieved food security, the government hopped onto the bandwagon of countries to become a developed nation. In this Endeavour the license regime met its end and the markets were opened up to let the private players on to the turf. This was followed by Technological revolution. A few statesmen were fascinated by the technology that they came across on their trips abroad. Hence they created favourable environment for major players in Information and Technology to enter into the Indian market. From that day India hit a purple patch. The MNCs not only got a large market but also cheap labour and infrastructure. This brought technology into the households. Then came BPOs which started cropping up in every nook and corner of modern day metros. Places like noida,gurgaon which were unheard of in the world were now buzz places thanks to the burgeoning number of BPOs in these areas. All this has so far been a smooth ride. We are almost near to becoming a developed nation. But what actually is happening is for every 1 step forward we are moving 2 steps back. Bolstered by the astounding success of green revolution resulting in achieving food security , India went on to participate in race to become a developed nation. But in this mad race to become a developed nation We forgot what was quintessential and that is SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. We put the food sector on the back burner and put focus on IT sector. What IT sector did was , filled the coffers . Our country is now home to some of the richest people in the world. But what we are missing out is that the banks are getting stacked up with cash but the stocks in granaries are fast disappearing. The concrete jungles(cities) are expanding owing to the burgeoning real estate market thus urbanizing some the village on periphery. Some of the most fertile lands have now become prime locations for setting up shopping malls which are nothing but a hang out place for the rich while the poor who were making a livelihood on the land are left in the lurch. The lands that have turned infertile due to unscientific farming have been converted into SEZs by the government instead of making an attempt to revive the fertility of land. As a result of all these activites the net sown area has been on a decline. There is a growing demand for food. This has resulted in shortage of some essential commodities , resulting in shooting up of prices . This is one of the main reasons for increasing inflation rate. No austerity measures can save us from inflation. The only way out is to increase net sown area and increase the productivity of agricultural land by scientific research.This is just a start of our journey down the helical path. Very soon food stocks will reach alarmingly low levels and all these malls and technology parks wont come to our rescue. I would be more happy to stay on the roads with an assurance of 1 square meal a day than starve to death in an air conditioned room. So dear denizens ARISE AWAKE HELP OUR FARMERS REAP THE MAXIMUM BENEFITS OUT OF THEIR FIELDS.

LET THE YOUNG TAKE OVER

2008-06-20T02:00:00.000+05:30

A fortnight ago Hillary gracefully accepted defeat and went forward to appeal to all her supporters to support Obama as democrat’s presidential nominee. While I was seeing the speech I was wondering whether such an instance would come in our Indian politics. A women of the stature of Hillary who has seen everything in American politics accepting defeat to a young dynamic person like Obama was a treat to watch. She very much respected the people’s opinion. If we shift over to India the scenario is completely different. Today if at all there are some young leaders with potential to lead the country they must satisfy the following conditions:
(i)Has to be son/daughter of an influential national leader
(ii) Shouldn’t show any interest in changing the current political scenario
(iii) Turn a blind eye to grave problems of people but travel threw out the country on road shows like a hypocrite
If all these conditions are satisfied and he/she manages to impress all the octogenarian leaders of their party then he/she can hope to get nominated as the prime ministerial candidate. The agony doesn’t end there. If at all a young person(35-45) gets elected as the prime minister which I know is very hypothetical then opposition forces instead of respecting the people's mandate starts their mudslinging activity saying he/she has been spoon fed by their parents and dynastic politics . Infact I can draw an example from present scenario, Rahul Gandhi a 38 yr old MP from Amethi fought the election and followed all norms of constitution to become what he is now. But the opposition keeps attacking him even after 4 yrs as MP, labeling him as a child on the block being shielded by his mother . I fail to understand on what grounds are these people attacking him?. He has been elected by the people of his constituency (Amethi) . What these attacking people want to convey ? Do they want to say that these people were fools?. Did the people who elect him not know his background?. That’s the sad state of our Indian politics. The Politicians are disconnecting from people . They give more preference to their agenda than to their people. What for have they been elected? Definitely not to accommodate them in the lutyen’s bungalows and pamper them with all the perks and allow them to come out on roads and shout on the ruling government on every single issue. These days the opposition is not concurring with the government even on a single issue. For example the BJP very well knows the plus points of nuke deal but they don’t support it because its being carried forward by its rivals. Its simply school boyish in nature. There are cat fights happening every where with the the blame game going on everywhere. In AP the state govt was going ahead with auction of licenses for alcohol shops. On the media asking the CM for such a move which would encourage alcohol consumption he puts the blame on the previous govt which had done the same. Its absolutely insane. Doesn’t the CM have a mind of his own to judge what is good and bad for his citizens? It’s a tit for tat game going on. I don’t know when this is going to end. Even the parliament which was witness to some great debates till the early nineties has seen very few debates over the last few years with the opposition boycotting most of the sessions without even thinking of how much loss it is for the exchequer. I appeal to the political fraternity to act in a sane manner and please allow the young who have managed to come on to the national political scenario to implement their ideas if they have any.
JAI HIND