Cochin, the queen of the Arabian Sea, in Kerala is my hometown and I have always loved this place. It had places to have fun, to relax, movie theatres, the people are nice and the bus rides and travelling in your own vehicle were an experience in itself. In the last 12 months, I have spent only 3 months in this place as I started my college life at BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus. I missed this place a lot as I could come only during Divali for 5 days. But in the 5 days that I stayed in Cochin, something started telling me there was a lot happening in my hometown. I thought it was because I was coming home after 2 months and these where only the inevitable changes that happen to everything on this planet as I believed that change is the only constant in this world although I have had difficulties accepting these changes.
It was christmas when I came home again, another 50 days or so after I had left and this time, I was convinced that Cochin is not the old town that I had known. There was a building spree, which involved residential complexes, shopping malls and several other projects. Infact, during this stay, I met several people, conversing in hindi, of which I initially took no notice as in my campus, I am very much used to it. But then I realised that this was Cochin and the fact that this happened close to my house got me thinking. What is happening? Since the vacation was only for 20 days or so, I spend it trying to meet my old friends and keeping in touch with my new ones and could not linger over that question.
Now, this summer vacation lasts for 80 days and this gave me ample time to mull things over and find an answer to the question that I raised above. An important development was the signing of an agreement between the Goverment of Kerala and a Dubai based company for the establishment of software, Internet and IT related township in my hometown. Along with this, there were several other changes. An International container terminal was going to be built and the inaugration of the project had already been done sometime ago. Both these projects have been hanging in the balance for well over a year, due to political wrangling, protests over land acquisition and the obvious delays in the working of the politicians and bureaucracy accompanied by the fact that
Kerala was a state that had strong communist feelings, which had earned it the tag of an investment unfriendly state.
Cochin has long been the economic and Financial capital of the state of Kerala, something which came as a result of the natural Harbour, where a commercial port along with a navy command post has been established and also boasts of an International Airport, the first private ariport in the country. The two projects that I mentioned in the previous para had the Government playing some part in it, whereas several other changes came about as a result of private players. A software technology park was built in the Cochin Special Economic Zone, christened Technopolis and the biggest office building in Kerala was coming up at Kaloor, the work for which is nearly over now. There was also an explosion in Internet penetration, satellite television channels and Mobile phone connections across my state.
The last one had already happened two years before which now has come to a situation where even 14 year olds had mobile phones which means that there were 3 to 4 mobile phones in each household! If it was for parents to keep in touch with their children, they needn't have used some of the latest models available, which were also costly! I was more than amazed as even now, at the age of 19, I have a basic handset with no Bluetooth, Radio or Camera, something that my juniors do not even consider as a mobile phone! There are now more flats and shopping malls in the city and it is definitey becoming a 'Chotta Mumbai', or 'Little Mumbai'.
More people now own cars and their purchasing power has increased greatly which is clearly evident from the presence of international brands in various outlets across the city. There has been a rapid shift in the culture of the city and the landscape is also changing day by day. The mall culture, until now an unknown quantity is going to spread rapidly as construction of around half a dozen malls are under way and more and more people are living in high-rise apartments! The development has rewritten the concept of Keralites about owning a home as people are moving to flats due to varied reasons like security, no hassles of maintenance and amenities as it is taken care as a common facility, which grants some freedom to those with little time for themselves. The youth are now more exposed to the western world then ever before and they are very much familiar with Hollywood stars and Pop musicians, hang out regularly with friends and have more freedom these days than those in their age had until a few years ago. There has been change in the attitudes, aspirations, dressing style and their outlook.
I do not attribute these to the gradual changes that must take place, but the city is changing at a pace that not many of its residents are realising and with this, the problems that come with development are also on the rise and since the people don’t realise how fast development is happening, they are also unaware of the problems that can come with development and become aware of it only when they experience the difficulties. A small example is the garbage disposal in the entire district, which has been paralyzed and now the stench is spreading. I do not know whether this is the city that I want to live, since it is no longer the city that I loved. With these developments, I am going to loose it to a metropolitan city, with higher aspirations driven by modern technology and modern economy, a city chasing big dreams, big money and bigger oppurtunities where the people will live in apartments kissing the sky.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Hectic World
Consider this-the world on average now sleeps less than 7 hours a day. Compare this with almost 8 hours until a decade ago and almost 9 hours at the end of the 20th century. Why are straining ourselves more? Why do we work more, try to earn more, exert ourselves more and chase our targets with more and more vigour although it is not good for our health? We do it to survive in this world and our efforts are actually to make it a better world for us, Ironically enough, it is becoming more and more difficult to get through each day! Hyper blood pressure, mostly an age related disease is affecting teenagers due to the pressure to perform- to perform in exams, in life and due to peer competition. We strain ourselves more and more each day in an effort to get a good and better life but this pursuit ends up consuming ourselves. We have very little time on our hands and there is a lot to do with the 24 hours we have. We cannot reduce the time we spend at the workplace, infact, we have are working so much more than any of our previous generations that, it forces me to question the purpose behind technological, economical and other sorts of development that we claim to have achieved over our ancestors.
We are doing more work than ever at the office and this requires time. Although there has been an increase in the work we do, there hasn't been a similar rise in the number of hours we have in a day unfortunately. So, where does the additional time we need come from? One of the first things we did was to increase our efficiency and we achieved this with computers and other aids. But that was not enough and we needed more time and this came from our leisure time, the time we spend with our family and from our sleep. All this adversely affects our physical, mental and overall health. We try to cramp more work into less time but corporates being just profit-seekers first and foremost, force their employees to work more. Even in the case of students, life has never been more competitive and hectic and this is especially true in our country. We work more and more than previous generation ever dreamed of, but does that mean that we lead better lives? If we observe it from the financial perspective, there is no doubt that we are better off. But, is it just about money? Shouldn't we take into consideration what amount of effort we put in and what we have lost and what sacrifices we make to gain the money?
For starters, we have very little time to spend with our family and an ad by a
South-East Asian Airline company, which says that booking tickets online will give you more time to spend with your family is a sign of how hectic life has become. There are those who can’t even spend an hour exclusively with their family a week! We hurry to keep our appointments, to make it in time to the office, to finish assignments and projects on time, but we do not hurry when we go home, as there is no pressure to get home early but on all other occasions, we are under pressure to perform in a time bound manner. All this pressure and expectations and competition has resulted in more and more suicides and attempts at taking ones on life are alarmingly on the increase to such an extent that people talk freely about suicide as though it was the easiest of ways to escape and find relief from this world. People are more depressed these days and anti-depressant drugs are taken even by teenagers, as they couldn't handle the peer pressure and deliver the expected academic results. There is no sign of things getting better, infact they are getting worse by the moment.
Life has become a mad rush and is going to remain so unless we do something about. It is our greed that creates this rush. Big corporates exploit and over work their employees for their gains, to such an extent that what the company gains in one day from each employee is what that person gets in an entire month! This is just one of the many instances of giant companies increasing their profits by what is called increased efficiency. But what those at the top of these corporates don't realise is that these men and women too have families
but they are unable to spend time with them and unable to find time for leisure and just sit there and relax. In an article that appeared on the TIME magazine, it says that Asian fathers are struggling to see their children awake even once a day as they go to work before the children are up in the morning and reach well past the their kids' bed time.
We are becoming so career oriented that the concept of family relations is taking a heavy toll and we are simply becoming mechanical in our life and a machine like life is the last thing we want!
We are doing more work than ever at the office and this requires time. Although there has been an increase in the work we do, there hasn't been a similar rise in the number of hours we have in a day unfortunately. So, where does the additional time we need come from? One of the first things we did was to increase our efficiency and we achieved this with computers and other aids. But that was not enough and we needed more time and this came from our leisure time, the time we spend with our family and from our sleep. All this adversely affects our physical, mental and overall health. We try to cramp more work into less time but corporates being just profit-seekers first and foremost, force their employees to work more. Even in the case of students, life has never been more competitive and hectic and this is especially true in our country. We work more and more than previous generation ever dreamed of, but does that mean that we lead better lives? If we observe it from the financial perspective, there is no doubt that we are better off. But, is it just about money? Shouldn't we take into consideration what amount of effort we put in and what we have lost and what sacrifices we make to gain the money?
For starters, we have very little time to spend with our family and an ad by a
South-East Asian Airline company, which says that booking tickets online will give you more time to spend with your family is a sign of how hectic life has become. There are those who can’t even spend an hour exclusively with their family a week! We hurry to keep our appointments, to make it in time to the office, to finish assignments and projects on time, but we do not hurry when we go home, as there is no pressure to get home early but on all other occasions, we are under pressure to perform in a time bound manner. All this pressure and expectations and competition has resulted in more and more suicides and attempts at taking ones on life are alarmingly on the increase to such an extent that people talk freely about suicide as though it was the easiest of ways to escape and find relief from this world. People are more depressed these days and anti-depressant drugs are taken even by teenagers, as they couldn't handle the peer pressure and deliver the expected academic results. There is no sign of things getting better, infact they are getting worse by the moment.
Life has become a mad rush and is going to remain so unless we do something about. It is our greed that creates this rush. Big corporates exploit and over work their employees for their gains, to such an extent that what the company gains in one day from each employee is what that person gets in an entire month! This is just one of the many instances of giant companies increasing their profits by what is called increased efficiency. But what those at the top of these corporates don't realise is that these men and women too have families
but they are unable to spend time with them and unable to find time for leisure and just sit there and relax. In an article that appeared on the TIME magazine, it says that Asian fathers are struggling to see their children awake even once a day as they go to work before the children are up in the morning and reach well past the their kids' bed time.
We are becoming so career oriented that the concept of family relations is taking a heavy toll and we are simply becoming mechanical in our life and a machine like life is the last thing we want!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Point of views...
If you ask ten people, why India lost in the world cup, you are definitely going to get 10 different answers and some ofthem might even be contradictory. One must accept these as different opinions of people coming from entirely different backgrounds, who think in completely different ways and have very little in common about them. It is important not to take only one opinion as correct and the others are wrong. But when it is a situation where only one opinion is correct,we must resolve the situation peacufully by discussion and mutual consultation.
In an argument, we must listen patiently and without bias to the opinions and come to a decision when only one opinion is correct but when there is no definite answer as could be said in the case of whether Technology is destroying more than it's creating or an opinion about a movie, the answer given by each person depends upon the frame of mind of each person and onthe way he/she thinks. Here, there is no definite answer and it is about this case that I would like to discuss. Let us take the example of a movie- one person says he liked an action movie which had great fight scenes enhanced by visual effects and graphic jugglery whereas another person says he liked a love story which he says had a human touch. To an outsider and a neutral person, these represent two individuals with different tastes which makes them like different things and so there is no definite answer to their argument. But there is a chance for a conflict between these two individuals and they would argue their cases agressively with neitherof them conceding an inch. If atleast one of them had the sense to understand what the neutral and unbiased spectator did,we can avoid a possible confrontation. We see these sort of opinion differences always in life- between boys and girls where each of them say they are better than the other or in who is the better actor or the best cricketer or which is the best team in world football or which religion is better. There is no point in arguing as none of the sides are going to admit what they say or believe is wrong. The argument can heat up and lead to violence which provides all the more reasons to resolve the issue amicably by either finding out who is right or by making them realise that both opinions hold because of the reasons that I have stated previously.
If those who do not have the ability or the broad mindedness and the wisdom to accept different views as that of different individuals come to the seat of power, then this could be a recipe for disaster as they might not agree with some other personin a similar position of power and this might lead to conflict and such a conflict between the powerful can have disastrous consequences. While working in a group, all the members will have their own opinions, viewpoints,suggestions and each individual will have his/her take on each issue. If atleast one of them is so stubborn and adamant as not to accept others and wants prime importance to his/her opinion, then the entire groups working can be affected.
For a healthy argument on all issues, we must be patient enough to listen to all the views, make honest criticisms, accept those that are correct and discard those not required. Beliefs, values and ideals are relative as each person defines themin his own way. It is this lack of understanding, acceptance and tolerance that leads to religious conflicts, sectarianviolence, insurgency and even terrorism. The inability of the Palestinian and Israeli government to drop all prejudices,listen to each other patiently and accept each other has lead to the loss of innumerable lives over the decades. The same lack of respect, tolerance, impatience and unwillingness to accept each other lies at the heart of the conflict between Ireland and Britain, between India and Pakistan and several other cases.
This world will have peace, stability and comprehensive development only when all its people, nations, religious groups and sects understand, accept, tolerate and bear with each other patiently leading to the realisation that all of them can co-exist in this world and settle their differences amicably without violence, abuse and the use of force.
In an argument, we must listen patiently and without bias to the opinions and come to a decision when only one opinion is correct but when there is no definite answer as could be said in the case of whether Technology is destroying more than it's creating or an opinion about a movie, the answer given by each person depends upon the frame of mind of each person and onthe way he/she thinks. Here, there is no definite answer and it is about this case that I would like to discuss. Let us take the example of a movie- one person says he liked an action movie which had great fight scenes enhanced by visual effects and graphic jugglery whereas another person says he liked a love story which he says had a human touch. To an outsider and a neutral person, these represent two individuals with different tastes which makes them like different things and so there is no definite answer to their argument. But there is a chance for a conflict between these two individuals and they would argue their cases agressively with neitherof them conceding an inch. If atleast one of them had the sense to understand what the neutral and unbiased spectator did,we can avoid a possible confrontation. We see these sort of opinion differences always in life- between boys and girls where each of them say they are better than the other or in who is the better actor or the best cricketer or which is the best team in world football or which religion is better. There is no point in arguing as none of the sides are going to admit what they say or believe is wrong. The argument can heat up and lead to violence which provides all the more reasons to resolve the issue amicably by either finding out who is right or by making them realise that both opinions hold because of the reasons that I have stated previously.
If those who do not have the ability or the broad mindedness and the wisdom to accept different views as that of different individuals come to the seat of power, then this could be a recipe for disaster as they might not agree with some other personin a similar position of power and this might lead to conflict and such a conflict between the powerful can have disastrous consequences. While working in a group, all the members will have their own opinions, viewpoints,suggestions and each individual will have his/her take on each issue. If atleast one of them is so stubborn and adamant as not to accept others and wants prime importance to his/her opinion, then the entire groups working can be affected.
For a healthy argument on all issues, we must be patient enough to listen to all the views, make honest criticisms, accept those that are correct and discard those not required. Beliefs, values and ideals are relative as each person defines themin his own way. It is this lack of understanding, acceptance and tolerance that leads to religious conflicts, sectarianviolence, insurgency and even terrorism. The inability of the Palestinian and Israeli government to drop all prejudices,listen to each other patiently and accept each other has lead to the loss of innumerable lives over the decades. The same lack of respect, tolerance, impatience and unwillingness to accept each other lies at the heart of the conflict between Ireland and Britain, between India and Pakistan and several other cases.
This world will have peace, stability and comprehensive development only when all its people, nations, religious groups and sects understand, accept, tolerate and bear with each other patiently leading to the realisation that all of them can co-exist in this world and settle their differences amicably without violence, abuse and the use of force.
Just 4 funnn
I just saw a programme on NDTV 24*7 where viewers where asked to vote on whether the Indian public is obsessed with fairnessof skin. The outcome was that 82% of the people felt that Indians are obsessed with fairness. The vote was inspired by the recent Tamil movie 'Shivaji' starring Rajinikanth, because in the movie, the hero's lover turns him down due to his dark complexion. I must confess that I too am attracted to fair colour rather than a dark one and I do think that most people would place complexion as one of the most important factors determining beauty. Being a teenager, it is all the more obvious for me because when a dark coloured girl passes by, I wouldnt care much about it, but when it is a fair skinned girl, I do try to have a second glance(no wrong intentions dear reader!). I do not know whether it is an obsession, but it is a fact that dark skinned people are much less preferred over fair skinned ones in marriage. The case is same regardless of whether it is about a girl or boy.
The programmes also raised an issue whether this bias extended to other fields too. For example, would you take someone more seriously or pay more attention to a fair skinned person rather than a darker person. As far as I am concerned, I have never made such a discrimination in my life, but that could be because I am not old enough for that. I do not know for certain the reasons, but I am sure that I do not care whether a person is dark or fair when I meet that person. But, when it comes to marriage, I wouldnt insist on a fair skinned girl. All I want is someone who doesnt look ugly and not too dark please! And one more thing, when i go out with friends or I am just walking along or travelling, I would try to have a second look at someone who is fair! But even dark ones with a good look is okay with unless it is too dark! This is when I realise when people say 'Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder'. Perhaps, it is because of the difference in the way people define, perceive and enjoy beauty. So all you not too dark, beautiful girls, e-mail me. We could meet up!!!!!Okay, that was NOT supposed to be SERIOUS..... (I am not someone who goes partying and likes to freak out. My greatest fun is when I am with my friends and just chatting with them on any topic from movies to college life and ofcourse GIRLzzz!)
The programmes also raised an issue whether this bias extended to other fields too. For example, would you take someone more seriously or pay more attention to a fair skinned person rather than a darker person. As far as I am concerned, I have never made such a discrimination in my life, but that could be because I am not old enough for that. I do not know for certain the reasons, but I am sure that I do not care whether a person is dark or fair when I meet that person. But, when it comes to marriage, I wouldnt insist on a fair skinned girl. All I want is someone who doesnt look ugly and not too dark please! And one more thing, when i go out with friends or I am just walking along or travelling, I would try to have a second look at someone who is fair! But even dark ones with a good look is okay with unless it is too dark! This is when I realise when people say 'Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder'. Perhaps, it is because of the difference in the way people define, perceive and enjoy beauty. So all you not too dark, beautiful girls, e-mail me. We could meet up!!!!!Okay, that was NOT supposed to be SERIOUS..... (I am not someone who goes partying and likes to freak out. My greatest fun is when I am with my friends and just chatting with them on any topic from movies to college life and ofcourse GIRLzzz!)
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