The Waiting Faces

This poem was written during the long wait for interview in TISS for HRM course. My Group Discussion was over by 10:30 am and then I had to wait till 5 pm for my interview. Before starting the poem I would like to give background unless which, according to me, readers will not be able to get what i want to say. There were many people waiting for their turn for the interview just like me. Some of them were fresh graduates, who were facing such situation for the first time while few were experienced like me or even having more than me. But all were anxiously waiting for interview to get done and as they came back from the rooms where interviews were taking place, I came to observe their faces, and everyone, no matter experienced or otherwise showed same expression on their face and this poem occurred to me. And I thought of putting it here:

The Waiting Faces

For how much Time
Shall we wait?
Asked faces
Faces, that were tired
Faces, that were pretty
Faces, that were anxious
Faces, that were waiting
For their future

For how much time
Shall we wait?
It was already four hours
Gone in wait for "Questions"
That would answer
If their "Wait" is going to end
This year or one more year shall they wait
Before ending "The wait"

Some faces, relieved
Some faces, despaired
Some faces, happy
Some faces, confused
Such faces were
The product of our system
Some faces, young
Some faces, experienced
But they were all there
Together, waiting
Making no distinction
As such there is no difference
Between faces
Who are "waiting"

Here is the true story of Photojournalist, its a story of his Life, Achievement and his Death. (Source: http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/94/6/apartheid.asp)

Eye on Apartheid

by Judith Matloff
Matloff, a Reuters correspondent based in Johannesburg, was Kevin Carter's housemate, colleague, and friend.

Last April, the South African photographer Kevin Carter was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his picture of a well-fed vulture stalking a starving Sudanese girl. In May, he came to New York to receive his award. Two months later, the thirty-three-year-old news photographer connected a hose to the exhaust pipe of his red pickup truck and gassed himself to death. Journalists who had buried colleagues killed covering South Africa's turmoil resumed their grim role of pallbearers. Carter himself had barely missed being killed covering incidents in Tokoza township, the township where his best friend and colleague Ken Oosterbroek was later shot dead.

Carter had been documenting the political turmoil in his country since 1983, when he was hired as a photographer by the Sunday Express. His first Time cover came the next year. Thereafter, he worked for most leading South African newspapers -- The Star, The Sunday Tribune, and the progressive Rand Daily Mail, which later became The Weekly Mail -- and finally Reuters.

The violence seemed to affect Carter more than it did other colleagues who managed to shrug off with joints and jokes what they recorded on film. Returning from particularly upsetting assignments, he would often cry, or try to drink or drug himself into oblivion. Friends grew used to his 3 A.M. phone calls, rambling about suicide. He said that after shooting the Pulitzer-winning picture, he "sat under a tree and cried and chain-smoked. I couldn't distance myself from the horror of what I saw."

Carter's private demons were closing in on him when he returned to South Africa from New York. His suicide note said he was "depressed . . . without phone . . . money for rent . . . money for child support . . . money for debts . . . money! ! !" But he also lived with the demons familiar to all those whose profession makes them witness to horror. "I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain . . . of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen."

Randomness of thoughts

There is no electricity, thoughts are running here and there
Remember there is a rape victim in Delhi who was beaten for her crime of disclosing herself as a victim of rape
Inflation in India reaches new highs
Kumble is not fit for today’s crucial test match

Its been half an hour, electricity still has not come
Have to do something for this power cuts
What will happen next Friday, have to get through this interview or prepare to go to Bangalore
But hope is the best word or sedation
Hope this will happen
Hope that electricity will come soon

One hour and some more time has past now
Still no improvement
Mosquitoes having good feast
There is repellant in room that might be attracting them
Can we play better tomorrow, hope Dhoni’s boys will
Again hope
Have not stepped out of house today
Lets go for a stroll
In night and in no light
Because power still has not return

Oh man, power should have come by now
You asking why? Its been past two hours
Cant can not be done
Have to have some good talk
But how

Alas I can see light, power is back
Let us watch TV
But truth is you can not go away cant
TV is blurting out same stories that I mugged up for last three hours
Just switched off the TV
Let us write some thing
Something good, nice
Entertaining, imaginative, intelligent

But what am I writing
wasn’t it better then, when there was no electricity
When there were random thoughts
Floating in me
Rather than this, on this page

Reservations Reminded

Today’s breaking news: SC Upholds OBC quota of 27% in higher education.

My first reactions- this is sheer nonsense. This is insane, its not justice for general category, how can you sacrifice merit to quota, (and as I was also one of the aspirants for MBA, I know the fierce competition we have to face to win this rat race or shall I say CAT race, the haunting ghost of cut-offs and then long wait for whole process to take its due time to finally come to any decision on admissions and yes I know how to face failures also).

Thoughts revisited:
Then I started rethinking of my first reaction. Also I happen to read many reactions of aspiring candidates like me on Paraguay.com (which is, I think, one of the biggest community of India helping students who aspire to become tomorrow’s management Guru). And let me be frank, some of the reactions were totally nonsense and were just given when person gets excited and starts blurting without any facts or without any sense of reality.
So what is this row about reservations? Anyone who has closely followed the news and who knows or at least who can imagine Indian social scenario would welcome this decision. Main points of Supreme Court’s verdict are
- Creamy layer will not be benefited
- Children of MPs and MLAs are excluded from this category
- Five judge panel has explicitly stated that Reservation can not be perpetuity and it will be examined and reexamined every five years.
- Also SC has told government to come up with new list of OBC and existing list can not be taken granted.
- Last but not the least one of the judges has said that if quota seats remain vacant then those seats are open for general category. And government has also said that they will increase the number of sets.

So any sensitive Indian will welcome this verdict. So reservation reaches to 49+ % in higher education including 22.5% reservation for Schedule Casts and Schedule Tribes. Now one of the most frequently asked question: is it fair?
But what is this ‘fair’?
In a country like India, that has seen social stratification since ages, that has witnessed bloodied history of social suppression, this is inevitable. Agreed this is not going to solve the problem of imparting education, which is one of the fundamental Human Rights. But to be very honest no one has exact cure for this.
People who question about fairness of the system, tend to forget deliberately or otherwise, other forms of ‘non-fairness’
Is it fair for a candidate from rural part of the country that has no road connectivity, no electricity or if its their power is gone for more than 10 to 12 hours, to judge on the same line that other candidates from some well-to-do part?
Is it not the reality in that many parts of this country, that has abandoned Caste System on paper, still infected with class hierarchy? Also is it not true that many people who were down the ladder in the social system, are still far from any touch by our Economic Growth?

Indeed this move of introducing Reservations is politically motivated but here we should not forget that its Politics and questioning to politicians about this is like questioning industrialists for earning profits. Also we are responsible for these politicians.
What we require is more government institutions that will impart higher education. Also as everyone knows ‘India passes on paper when it comes to policy but fails in implementing it’, the reservation policies should be implemented so that it will help real needy person rather to serve well-to-do people irrespective of their Castes. Also reservation policies can be subject to rethinking as to go more benefits for rural poor (irrespective of caste) over urban people. (I am strongly against people who get benefits of reservation and enjoy higher positions in government jobs just because they can produce caste certificates)

Again I am not fully for reservation. I have my share of disappointment but when I see the verdict given by SC I am satisfied to say the least. ( I hope that parliament will not come up with amendment that will extend quota for children of MPs and MLAs).

Valu and Village

Valu- bull that has been sent after God- very important from village point of view. It’s a sacred, its divine, its traditional!
But why am I talking about Valu?
Today I watched Marathi movie-Valu. Marathi film industry certainly reaching new heights each year. And yes we all have witnessed this. What I remember, I grew up watching late Laxmikant Berde, Ashok Saraf, Mahesh Kothare, Prashant Damale (though he enjoyed more success in Marathi Drama than Marathi film industry) and of course not to forget Sachin Pilgaonkar. Those were the days of Ashi Hi BanwaBanwi, Shejari Shejari, Ekapeksha Ek, Takluhaivan to name a few. Not to mention, sops like Maherchi Sadi and alike those were typical of Marathi Culture, either depicting immense power of faith in God or showing daughter-in-laws who against all odds fight with their mother-in-laws mostly. Here, I have not mentioned late Dada Kondke, but not to offence anyone, its simply on my personal taste. But really speaking, when everyone was worried about Marathi film industry being dying away, yet again the wheel has turned around. And for last two years, I personally have witnessed industry’s great strides. Movies like Shwas, Dombiwali Fast, (this one I will never forget, it has disturbed me, it has forced me to think hard and it has depressed me at times),Nital, that venture in new storylines and carry some message though sometimes not explicitly and others like Kaydyache Bola, Issha, Aga Bai Areccha, that serve their purpose of pure and bland comedy. Valu continues this trend of new ventures and new stories. Though I am not claiming that I am connoisseur and a great film critique.
A forest officer who is immensely proud of his bravado catches of wild cats and tigers is given a job of entrapping a bull that has gone wild in one small village. He is obviously reluctant and thought of this job as degradation of his courage- how can I be given a job of catching a Bull in some village? But as a government servant he has to do his job. And then the real story starts. Film very well shows life in a small village. We have to give full credit for the choice of the village. it is truly a village! Then film touches life in village in general, and more of people from village who become very excited to welcome this forest officer and also very proud because someone form outside has come to rescue them from this great danger! This is not a film where you get those great chase of wild bull, narrow escape or where romance blossoms while chasing wild bull but it is certainly a film where you can experience village, people living in it, very little flavor of politics but free from any ill feelings amongst villagers, and a village where wild bull itself becomes a great topic to talk about and how it affects their life in general. Not to forget little love story indeed blossoms in all this drama but thankfully it has not given much importance. However when forest officer did eventually able to catch wild bull, and when he was returning back to his posting, one of the villager Jeevnya who has helped him in all this comes and offers him some vegetables as a symbol of his love for that officer who has taken trouble to visit this village and help them. At this moment when the forest officer, Atul Kulkarni, looks into eyes of Jeevanya, and yes this one look conveys all his feelings towards villagers. It does say that he has collected some unforgettable memories, he has really enjoyed this little adventure and yes his heart will want to visit that village all the time even if its not possible he will definitely not forget this adventure.
And yes I have experienced same feeling when I visited tribal areas. It all started with Chikhalgaon, small tribal village (pada) near Pune. Me and all my friends who went there share the same feeling. We want to go there. We have said this many times. And it has not been possible for us to go there back. We had promised them that we will come back, we will visit them again and we will give them their photographs. But it didn’t happen and it didn’t happen again and again whenever I visited to new tribal areas I promised them but could not live up to that promise. I may go and visit them in future or may not but one think I am sure that they must have forgiven me and whenever I go back, it at all, they will share same love because this is the place called Village and they are Villagers.

Book Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Recently I finished reading one Hundred Years of Solitude written by eminent writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez. This was first ever Nobel Prize winner book I have ever read. Also credit has t be given to Rabassa who has translated the book; his excellent vocabulary and apt description make readers involved in characters. This ought to be one of the best books of the century.
Story revolves around Buendia family in Mocondo. Patriarchal Buendia family has founded Mocondo with few other residents. It was a place that was isolated, far from other civilizations. There are in all seven generations of Buendias through which author takes us on the journey of Buendia’s family struggle, glimpses of social and political situation in Mocondo, class struggle against oppressors, struggle to have their rights, at the same time it describes various personal characters form Buendias generations some are hostile, dominant and while some are introspective, happy to isolate themselves from rest of the world and their character traits get inherited throughout seven generations. Females in the family from seven generations also range from strong, outgoing, sexually inclined, promiscuous to highly chastity conscious. The point is made in the book about why one should not marry with someone from same family so as to avoid newborn with little tail. However, it also make reference to incest that is usually a taboo in modern society. In the course, Mocondo also experience advancement in technology, with introduction of Railways, which otherwise they would only come to know through Gypsies who would tell them about magnifying glass, ice which people of Mocondo revered as something magical innovation by Gypsies themselves. Mocondo also witness establishment of its first ever Industry and thereby ill effects of modernity. Thereby starts struggle between ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ or between owners and workers that ultimately leads to bloodied climax. As years passes, generations born and died, Mocondo becomes as it was before- deserted and Solitary.
The names used for characters in each generation of Bueandia’s family, though same and hence little confusing, help us to know character trait that person might have inherited from previous generation.
Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1928 in Aracataca, a banana town in Colombia. The predominant banana industry and the massacre of striking banana workers in 1928 were the events that might have influenced his work.

coming back...

Hi there,

here i am will all new vigor and thoughts. I agree that i was not able to keep up my spirit up for writing earlier when i created my first blog.. i think therefore.. So i have to say goodbye to it and have to witness quiet exit of the same...
But here with all new thoughts and all new energy, I have created yet another platform for my thoughts.. and yeah this time it will continue uninterrupted..
so keep looking for reviews, articles and fresh look at important developments in and around us...