The Young Guns of India

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Yes this title is taken from one of my favourite movies, and like that movie, this blog is dedicated to the generation next or the Young India as its being termed now. A couple of days back I was reading the results of a survey on the youth in different parts of the world on a website. It mentioned that the Indian youth were the happiest, focused on work and the most optimistic about the future as compared to the youth of the rest of the world. The survey ironically was done by a Swedish agency.

Then a couple of days back the Indian cricket team won the world cup. Well the cricket team features yet again, but this time it’s not cynicism, but pure admiration for the way they won the cup. They were fearless, brave, calm and played like a team after a long time. It was pure joy to watch the semi-finals and the finals (courtesy the internet and cricinfo), though I didn’t think I would survive the heart attacks that I almost got!! It was more special since we put the Aussies at their place and a win against Pakistan is always special (looks like that record will take a while to break). The celebrations all across the country are warranted for, as the cup comes to us after 24 years, and no one really knows when the next time will be. It’s a pity that I am far away from all the fun in India, and have given up on explaining to the Swedes, the part that cricket plays in our lives!!

A lot has been said about Dhoni, and the team playing fearlessly, enjoying what they do and not being bogged down by the past etc, and I find no sense in repeating it here. To me it’s a reflection of how “Young India” is. And I see it everyday, especially now that I am here in Sweden and I can appreciate the difference between the youth of the two countries and hence two very different cultures. People here get surprised when my colleagues and I (all below 30) talk to them about various aspects of business and get involved in decision making. They cannot imagine how kids are sent for such important assignments, and get all the more bewildered when I tell them that it’s a common feature in the company to give responsibility to youngsters, more so because the average age of the employees of the company is around 26. That shocks them beyond belief!! Almost all of them who have visited India talk of the young people there, how educated they are, and how they are willing to stretch, and how seriously they take their careers, this apart from complaining about the traffic there!! While it’s nothing unusual for me; after living here, I can understand why it shocks them. Most people here start taking their careers seriously only after they turn 30 or more. And even when people work, the attitude to work is very different from what it is in India. Here work is as aptly put by a Swedish colleague, a method to sustain their hobbies; very different from India, where it’s a social symbol, a means to a good living and a lot more…. Obviously when these people meet 22 year olds who know exactly what they want, and are prepared to work hard and take all possible chances to get there, they do a complete somersault!!

While at one hand when I look around here, I feel these people here are lucky not to have as many people as we have in India making their lives easier and more content, on the other hand I feel I am lucky to be born in India in this era. Its good to be a part of the club termed as an achiever, fearless and willing to go all the way!! It’s possible that all this due to the excessive competition that we face from childhood that makes us aggressive and give our all out to win. Maybe the fact that “if not me, then someone else is going to take my place”, or maybe its only because we live in a society where education, the kind of work someone does, the kind of money someone earns decides his or her social standing that propels us to give it our best and not fear from taking risks to win.

Whatever the reasons are, I feel it will do us good in the long run. Its already proved by the Indian economy doing so well, the rupee rising, the sensex being around the 17K mark, a lot of Indians abroad wanting to get back, some Swedish colleagues of mine expressing interest to work in India and now even with us doing so well in Hockey, soccer and winning the world cup!!

PS: I am aware of the contradictions in the previous blog and this one on Indian cricket… cannot help it, I am the original fickle Indian cricket fan!! Also wanted to spew venom against that statement made by Shoaib Mallik, but then let it pass, since its either a reflection of his poor English, or ignorance or pathetic thinking - in any case, completely unworthy of any comment.

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An Eternal Optimist

Saturday, September 15, 2007

This is a story about a friend who believes that the Indian cricket team can do no wrong…if the team bats miserably – the pitch was bad, how could they help it, the bowlers will surely do a good job and win the match for us …oops they got hit all over the place – poor guys, some of them were suffering from injuries but still played, fielding is bad – they try but somehow cannot seem to see the ball due to bad lighting… when he cannot convince himself longer, he also puts the blame on Dawood Ibrahim and his devious methods of earning a quick buck through cricket!!! This is a cycle that goes on and on, but my friend doesn’t lose faith and still believes that Indian cricket team is the best…

And best it is…I mean who can refute the fact that its one of the best batting line ups on paper, it is another matter that this famed line-up chokes on most of the crucial games …Bowling is an area that India has always been weak in, but when we get a decent fast bowler, in the hope of creating a Kapil Dev, we ensure that he forgets how to bowl too…then there are this list of fast bowlers, medium pacers, spinners that I cannot seem to remember because they keep flitting in and out of the team…some of them we remember more for their in-field behavior as compared to their performance…but then whatever catches attention right? My friend tells me it is because we want to develop the second line of talent that we never seem to have a permanent team, a permanent opening pair I guess is too much to ask for… how does it matter if we lose a million matches in the name of developing talent! Fielding is something I don’t even want to start with.. I think Indian fielding has been a subject of a million jokes and was even a successful ad campaign for a washing powder brand, need I say more….but despite all this, this eternally optimistic friend of mine bought a subscription to watch the match online, went to office to watch the match with a LAN connection on a big screen, hooting for India to win…. Just to come back moping yet again!! But like I said the cycle repeats over and over again, so this friend is disappointed that the wireless connection does not work at the airport, is secretly thrilled that the flight is delayed and there is trouble with our tickets just so that he could stay a little longer at the airport and call home in India to check on the scores of the match between India and Pakistan in the 20-20 world cup… I am hoping for his sake and the sake of a million others like him that India at least keep this record of beating Pakistan in the world cup matches… It’s the Indian team – you never know… they love breaking these type of records!!

I guess it’s just too much to ask a team of 12 players to carry the hope and expectations of a billion people… I guess it’s too much to ask of them to perform well…at least to make us feel that they tried their best… but then again I guess its not too much considering all the money they make out of the sponsorship that they get – all thanks to the expectations of the very same billion people…

Today the captain of the Indian team has resigned, we are a team without both a captain and a coach…My friend says, things cannot get worse than this…we have to go upwards at least now.. I thought we already hit rock bottom when we lost to Bangladesh and Srilanka, didn’t make it to the Super eight and the team winning against Bangladesh in Bangladesh was making news!… Oh but then I forget my friend is an eternally optimistic Indian cricket fan…

PS: we reached Skelleftea and got to know that India finally managed to win the tie breaker...never mind that after reducing Pakistan for 59/5 in the 11th over there should not have been left a scope for a tie breaker in the first place…the good news my friend tells me is that they managed to keep this one record intact – at least for now…..

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Contradictions Galore

Thursday, September 13, 2007

A new Indian, or desi as we call ourselves here, has come to Skelleftea recently, and as always, I treated (read dragged) him to my famous 5 km walk by the river, on our walk he threw a wrapper on the road… and this became the topic of discussion on the dinner table… how conscious are we as nation towards cleanliness of our environment??

The answer comes easy to all of us, since we do walk/drive on streets with out eyes wide open – its there for all to see!! It’s amazing how we Indians generally insist on keeping our houses spic and span, but don’t follow the same rules when it comes to the streets…..most of us do not think twice before throwing something on the streets without a care for what will become of it, how unhygienic it is, or what impression it would create on the minds of foreigners coming to visit one of the fastest growing economy...we don’t care since its not our house getting dirty!!!

One major excuse that I get to hear whenever this comes up is that there is a lack of infrastructure (read sufficient dustbins), but come on guys, how much of an effort is it, to keep the wrapper, or any other kind of garbage with you until you find a garbage can and then just dump it… its basically just a mindset issue… on my last visit to Cochin, the burning issue was the garbage disposal system, and I am not exaggerating but there was an ever-growing pile of plastics bags full of rubbish every 100 mtrs on the streets.. The whole city was stinking and there was a hue and cry created on this issue, which finally needed the intervention of the high court…well yes the blame was put on the municipal cooperation, but what do they do in a state where almost no land is owned by the government and everyone is ready to go on a strike for just about nothing….I saw some really well dressed people, living in beautiful big houses come early morning and throw their bags on the street … the question on my mind was that hadn’t they heard of the age old method of disposing waste - the decomposition pit!! You don’t really need a court to tell you something which is basic common sense…but then again common sense is not so common after all…

The amazing thing to see, is that these same very people who have no regard for the surroundings in India, become an epitome of following rules in every aspect when go abroad, so much so that they surpass that the locals living there ( my friend was an exception though)…the heartrending thing is that we have become so insensitive to the whole issue in India that we don’t even notice it as a problem …its only when you come abroad do you see a stark difference…. its not that the Swedes are extra clean, they are far from it….its there for anyone who wakes up and takes a walk early in the morning before the cleaning happens – there are beer bottles and wrappers everywhere. They have the advantage of being so scarcely populated for the place and the money they have that they can afford to look spic and span despite not being that… We don’t have that in India, so isn’t it as dutiful citizens our duty to keep it clean?? I know it’s a fairly basic issue but then shouldn’t we get the basics right before we aim for the stars??

PS: I know a lot of us are conscious about what we do.. this is targeted at the other 75% of the population

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The battle is on...

Thursday, September 06, 2007

My blog has started looking more like a National Geographic write up or that’s what my friends say. And hence I have decided to finally write about something which has been on my mind for a while now, but just didn’t seem to have the courage to write about it for fear of backlash!! Read on and you’ll know what I mean…

For years I have heard my male friends cribbing about how women were confused people who didn’t know what they want, they kept changing their mind, and to please a woman was an impossible task – this among a whole list of other cribs…and when I heard stories of how those “poor” souls were tortured by their girlfriends, I felt a tad bit sorry for them as well….

However have realized completely on what a waste my sympathies were since it was either lack of tact, or insensitivity or some other stupidity that led to such behavior( if at all it wasn’t anything but mere figment of imagination)…

Experiential learning - I am going through the whole arrange marriage process right now and if I wasn’t the one going through the pain of conversing with guys, it would probably be down right hilarious, though I do end up laughing about it while sharing similar stories of guy behavior with my friends…

Most guys tell me they want their wives to be independent, consultative and have opinions.. however there’s a rider to this – she cannot have a different opinion from him and the skies fall down if she voices it openly too….another funny one “ she should be smart, beautiful, intelligent, witty, homely etc etc” – question if she was all this, why would she marry you and why not Tom Cruise?? And this from a guy, who looks like anything but Tom cruise, I mean get realistic dude!!!! It’s alright for the girl to have a job, but her taking her career seriously is concept alien to a guy… its okay for a guy to be opinionated, go getter, well traveled and ambitious , but a girl be that and she’s labeled as unmarriageable!! Then there is a breed of guys who are working in the US – and OMG do they think they are god’s gift to woman kind or what – they are definitely not going to settle for anyone else than an Aishwarya Rai look alike, how does it matter if their scope is limited to the one place in India where they lived in forever before being transported to a city in the US (some of them have a combination of pathetic English with that horribly fake American accent)…am just wondering now on who is the more confused species – the girl or the guy….

It gets funnier when you actually start talking to them that sometimes you actually believe that we women are such a superior race!! While women talk to compatibility, understanding, ease of communication etc, the guy ends up talking of are we comfortable speaking the same language (literally and not metaphorically) - now I understand communication is important, but shouldn't you look at ideas, views etc rather than the language they are spoken in, how difficult is it to master a language if you really like someone; similarities in the kind of movies we like – am still to understand on how that can be a criteria for someone to decide on marriage but whatever, oh yes how can I forget the all important question – do you know how to cook?? wonder of wonder, if you do manage to find one remotely decent guy among this crazy pack – then he for sure will turn out to be the commitment phobic kinds who is looking at girls because he’s getting older by the day but is so damn cautious about committing that he might just take years to decide!!!

Some of my married friends tell me that what I am going through with guys is just nothing; they live with these confused, erratic souls so they need to be pitied more... Living with creatures who are highly disorganized, moody, dirty, lazy, ill mannered and ungrateful am sure is not an easy task!! Its hilarious how a guy is bewildered when his wife sulks coz he commented that some chick he saw was hot – honesty yes we are all game for it, but tactlessness is a definite NO…they get mad when the wife nags on them being untidy, but quite honestly who wants to live in a place which closely resembles a pig sty!! Well I guess the list just goes on and on…

I am sure some of the guys reading this must be thinking, if men are so bad, why do women get married to them. The answer is simple, women being superior want everyone to try and be perfect like them.. men for us are like a project… we take pity on them and try to make them better, since perfection, is beyond men :P

Note to all my guy friends: don’t get angry at this one – learn from it!!

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About the blog

I don’t promise to make it one of the most intellectual or even the most interesting of the blogs. This is my space and hence would contain anything that holds my attention – a movie, a road trip, an experience, or sometimes even my never ending list of complaints - Basically ramblings from my wandering mind.
Read if you have the time and the inclination, nothing earth shattering will happen if you don’t.
If you do decide to read it, comments most welcome!

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