TRAVAILS OF SMALL TOWN STUDENTS

"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings"

                                                                                                    - John F. Kennedy

People say that great men seldom get their views and thoughts wrong. I, however, differ with this famous quote of the former President of the United States of America. The context I have chosen today to counter the merits of this quote are nothing but the travails of small town students when they migrate to larger towns/ big cities either for higher studies/coaching for competitive exams or for jobs. 

Higher education is India is unfortunately centralized or restricted to few cities/ hubs. As such, any student from a small town/ village who (after his/her completion of basic education- generally up to Class XII) aspires to achieve something big in life has very little/limited choice but to migrate to these education hubs (My personal mentor would like to call this situation of these students as "CHOICE-LESS CHOICE"). 

Living in a small town and dreaming about coming to big cities for studies with big ambitions is undoubtedly a pleasant experience. However, dreams are far from reality and it is no different in this case as well. Harsh facts start imposing their whims and fancies on these students from the moment they leave their houses and catch the trains to their destinations. 

Things slowly begin to get worse from here on. The first problem with which these students are confronted is to find and negotiate a three-wheeler/ taxi to ferry them to their uncles'/aunties'/friends' house where they plan to stay for a week or so on. Once they reach the house and freshen up and sit down to have food with the host, they face another stark reality. Their host would invariably tell them that his/ her landlord does not like guests staying for more than 2-3 days and as such, they have to look for an accommodation the next day (Sadly enough, most of the colleges and institutes of these education hubs have limited hostel facilities)

Night passes by. Now comes the most interesting part of the story. One will go and look for houses/ hostels/ Paying Guests etc.; but will soon realise that the landlords/ owners don't agree to giving their houses for rent directly- the request has to be routed through an agent who is popularly known as "PROPERTY DEALER". You go to the Property Dealer and you will be greeted by some large-bellied uncle or a huckster. Very simple funda- pay the broker 1-2 months' rent as commission and you find yourself a place to stay. (Let me tell you that the quality of accommodation is directly proportional to the amount of money paid to the broker).

After shelter, time comes for food. One can go for food delivered at one's door-step by people commonly known as "DABBAWALAS" or go for a cook and have homely food (the second one is a relatively expensive proposition). Then comes the problem with drinking water- Go for municipality water (provided you want to be infected with JAUNNDICE within the next 8-10 months) or get that 20 litre can (Branded cans like Bisleri come for Rs.80 nowadays and those of local brands are available for Rs. 30 onwards). Now that you have stayed for one week, your clothes become dirty and here again, one can adopt two options- go for a washerman or try self-washing (the second option is little tough but not altogether unachievable)

Next, we proceed to a different set of problems-

• You fall sick quite often due to your body finding it difficult to adjust to new weather conditions
•  You can't study because your landlord's house will play the TV at loud volumes and even after repeated requests, things won't change
• Your cook/ dabbawala will disappear for 3-4 days (at times, up to 10 days)
• You don't like the taste of the food cooked by your dabbawala/ cook
• Your Dhobi will spoil the design of your favourite t-shirt/shirt. In worst cases, you might lose few of your t-shirts

I CAN THINK OF THOUSAND OTHER PROBLEMS. The intention here is not to go on bragging about these issues but rather to highlight that these innocent students are not themselves responsible for the problems they face. It is actually their bad luck. On a serious note, it is perhaps the outcome of the education policies adopted by the government at large and that of the private education space as well up to a certain extent. There is an imminent need on the part of the government and that of the private sector to move beyond their comfort zone and look at smaller towns/ cities as potential beds for higher education. In this regard, the efforts of the Central Government in opening up new IITs and IIMs in little-known places is a step forward in the positive direction. But much more needs to be done. After all, the students from small-towns/ villages can't be left to wander endlessly.

Disclaimer: This piece has been written mainly based on generalisation of individual experiences. Therefore, it is quite likely that many of its readers may not agree to certain aspects/ parts of the piece. You are welcome to differ !!!

CSK and Luck- Overcrowded convergence !!!!

Since the inception of the wonderful game of cricket, Luck has always played a major role in deciding the outcome of cricket matches...Be it inside edges, outside edges, french cuts, dropped catches, no-balls, wide-balls, or for that matter missed run-out chances, an unnatural outcome of a delivery has swung the pendulum in favour of the disadvantaged sides time and again. Although these instances of luck do keep happening, it is however, important to note the frequency of these occurrences. If the frequency changes dramatically during a particular match (in favour of a particular team), the cricket-loving fans are bound to delve profoundly on the issue. 

The Chennai Super Kings, defending champions of IPL has been riding such luck all through IPL5. Especially, during critical junctures of the tournament, this luck factor began imposing its influence to an unbelievable extent. The champions during the initial stages of the tournament were not able to make much of an impression. But, as time passed by, they went on to win few very close matches. Let me clarify that I am not doubting the capability of the CSK team. What I am trying to highlight rather is the incapability of the other teams when it comes to facing CSK. I shall not go into the details of all the matches. But I feel it is extremely important to pinpoint couple of matches:-

First is the penultimate league match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers (which never got its team combination working throughout the tournament). By then, 3 teams namely DD, KKR and MI had already cemented their place in the playoffs. This match was meant to decide who would go to the playoffs- either RCB or CSK. If RCB won, it would make it and vice-versa. Significantly enough, the DC led by Sangakkara and coached by Darren Lehman (who always keeps taking notes during matches- What do you write Darren? Please share with us...Don't worry if your handwriting is bad; We are merely interested in the content) manages to gather all its lost pride and vigour in this match...BRAVO !! Wow !!! Hats off to DC. A team which was finding it difficult to defend 180+ during earlier matches successfully defends 132 in this crucial match. Now, this is called "PLAYING FOR PRIDE". 

Second, the eliminator match between CSK and DD. Now, this match had every element to make it to a Bollywood film directed by Ram Gopal Verma (He surely could have managed a hit with it). DD surprisingly enough drops the tournament's leading wicket-taker Morne Morkel and the in-form Irfan Pathan from its Playing Eleven and includes an IPL debutant Sunny Gupta (a little known spinner). David Warner, one of the best fielders in world cricket goes on to drop a sitter. Further, DD's captain Virender Sehwag changes his batting line-up and sends Jawardene up the order and demotes him to No.3. CSK go on to win the match and on track to win IPL5. After all, a team owned by the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) can't simply be allowed to lose. 

In the light of the above discussion, the Governing Council of the IPL must make the hidden clauses of the tournament open during IPL 6. Following should ideally be the list of those clauses-

1. However good/bad a team plays during most of its initial matches in the tournament, in the final few matches, they must change their game plan to make CSK win
2. The teams will play for only second place. The Champion team is reserved for CSK
3. In play-offs, the other teams apart from CSK must make arbitrary and illogical decisions
4. The best fielders must drop sitters

5. Little known cricketers must make their debuts in important matches only against CSK

.

.

.

.........& the list goes on and on......

To end this piece, I would like to quote Ramachandra Guha 

" The IPL is bad for capitalism, democracy and cricket" 

Elitist Responses towards Squalor: Genuine or Makeshift

India in the last two decades or so have achieved remarkable numbers. These numbers, the economists, keep referring to quite frequently, are nothing but year on year increases in the standardized measures of a country's economic progress. Ideally, the effect of these numbers should have percolated down to everyone. However, ironically, they have had asymmetric impacts on the lives and livelihoods on different sections of the country's population. While they have led to insurmountable delectation of the elites and, thereby, enabled them to strut around, they have touched the lives of the people living at the middle and bottom of the pyramid only partially. These gets reflected in the downward slide of the so-called "Poverty lines" estimated by the various committees set up the Government at various points of time. Even though the accuracy of these numbers have been extensively debated in the public domain, there is no denying that the number of the poor and oppressed of the country have come down over time (however small that decline in poverty may be). Significantly enough, a sizable proportion of the population still do not have access to two square meals a day.


The reaction and response of India's affluent class towards this asymmetry is worth mentioning. Few questions which keep creeping up in my mind time and again related to this issue are penned down below for the readers of this blog to ponder upon-

• Does an affluent citizen actually understands that he/she belong to a select class of people and that many who may be similar to him/her (in terms of age, community, physical features....for that matter "whatever") do not have similar accesses?
• Let's assume that the affluent class does understand the plight and despair of the poor. But they do actually care for it?
• When an affluent sympathizes with the gloom and doom of the poor, the point to deliberate upon is whether he/she is genuinely doing it or just trying a makeshift appearance?
• Does he know how it feels to get up early in the morning and run towards the fields looking for a bush to hide his/her act of open defecation?
• Does he know how it feels when one kilogram of rice is shared by 10 members of a family with mere salt (not sugar, sugar is currently being sold at Rs.32 in the market)? Does he know how it feels when one has to forget that there is something called 'Supper'?
• Does he know how it feels to slog in the fields for 8-10 hours under scorching sun?
• Does he know how it feels to bring a pale of water by walking half a kilometre? (let me apprise the affluent that this is not the nursery rhyme of "Jack and Jill')
• Does he know how it feels when a family member embraces death (while being on the way to take the concerned member to the nearby dispensary situated at least 4-5 kilometres away)

Just shedding crocodile tears is perhaps neither necessary nor sufficient to understand the real trauma of the poor. The affluent, at some point in their lives, should undertake a sojourn to a place absent of the colours present in their lives. Only then can they understand how it feels not to have accesses !!!!

Less Memory-Oriented- The Google Effect

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men;
No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man"
                                                                                  -- Elbert Hubbard

When we were kids, one aspect which played a significant role in ushering in everyday life was one's ability to remember things. To be precise, being memory oriented used to decide many a future tracks. There was a time when I knew the currencies and capitals of almost all the countries in the world- You name the country and there I am, with the answer in the flash of a second. However, one critical aspect which strikes me is that accuracy of information was difficult to challenge then. To get access to the source from where the information emanated was at times beyond our physical limits.


Times have changed drastically though. Now, we have all the information in the world- thanks to Google. But, here comes the reason as to why I chose to write on this issue. The easy availability of information on the internet is leading to an "Intellectual Laziness" making people less memory-oriented on most aspects. This is what is increasingly being referred to as the "GOOGLE EFFECT'. We no more make it a point to remember once and for all the information we checked on Google.

Consequently, in most of our discussions nowadays, when we try and relate the current topic being addressed to something similar (which happened in the past- irrespective of whether it is immediate or not), we tend to come up with statements like-

"I knew that...How can I forget that?"

"Something similar happened in Japan in the early nineties. I don't remember what exactly it was"

"I read about it just the other day on Wikipedia. Alas, I can't remember it"

"I have seen all of Meg Ryan's movies. I love the one where she falls for a person who narrates his feelings of loneliness on the radio...What was the name of the movie? Shit, I saw that movie thrice." 

Technology undoubtedly has redefined human existence. But, being dependent on it a bit too much is sure to generate negative externalities. Moving with times is necessary, but leaving behind everything is a farce !

I have always thought of having a blog of my won. However, some good things don't just happen. Finally, re-energizing all my enthusiasm and desire, I am launching my own blog- "Cricket..Food..Movies- pacemakers". Well, you must be thinking what prompted me to come up with this strange nomenclature for my blog. Hmm..Let me tell you that these three words imbibe in me the passion and feel to make it big in life !

I shall use this blog mainly to touch upon these three aspects. Nonetheless, at times, I shall also talk about career, aspirations, books, music, business, governance, ethics, knowledge sharing as well ! Also, as and when the appropriate time comes, I may include some posts on newer topics. Looking forward to an engaging and enthralling experience !!!