Demography of an Indian mass movement:Anna Hazare and the divisions in Indian society

Well ...he is the most talked about person in India,today.The ruling party is having nightmares due to his movement.At this ripe old age he is the "Icon" for Indian youth.Bollywood superstars and "young faces" of political parties are way behind in terms of popularity.He is the man who has created "mass histeria" among Indian population.Apparently people from all sections of the society are joining his crusade against corruption.But if we carefully follow the demographic profile of the people who are attending his movement we observe few interesting facts.You have seen this movement covered by visual media extensively.Did you notice the people who were interviewed by media persons were all well dressed,english speaking,upper class people.Please do not think that I am trying to undermine this movement anyway!As a matter of fact I am a great fan of Anna and wholeheartedly supports enactment of Janlokpal.But probably my obsevation is correct.isnt it?Now we have to analyze why today's english speaking upper class youth is shouting so voilently for an act which will keep vigil on its lagislature.
The reason is today's young population is disillusioned with the democratic framework of the country.The lagislature is primarily current ,executive is inept and judiciary is not accountable. The political class has failed to fulfiill the aspiration of India youth.Did you also notice the uncanny similarities between this movement and the anti reservation protests in recent past?The same english speaking upper class indian youths was also in the streets protesting against reservation.Though  their presence is felt every media we follow today,be it internet,tv or newspapers but as a matter of fact they are a "minority".There are millions of people who elect people who belong to their caste or promise to favour them.The are millions who  vote as a religious community not  merely as citizens.The polical parties have never bothered to eradicate corruption among its members simply because "corruption" may be a social issue but not a political issue.A corrupt people can get elccted repeatedly if he creates an image that he or she champions the cause of a particular caste or creed.Look at Lalu prasad or Mayavati or Jayalalitha.Probably it is the insecurity among dalits and other social groups which vote on the basis of caste or creed.These are the reasons why today's Upper caste Indian youth is disillusioned with the democratic institutions of the country.They are raising voice againt corruptions in the corridors of power but unknowingly they are also undermining the democratic frame work of the country which is formed considering the opinion of all sections of  the society.

Book review: My pick "The Tipping Point"

Sometimes we come across a book which introduces new ways to analyze things.It encourages you to think beyond the obvious and not to go with the crowd."The Tipping Point" is a book of that genre.The book discusses about how new trends come in society, how small changes causes a big revolutionary change to occur,
how new fashions become and spreads like "social epidemic".Certain examples have been shown by the author in forms of case studies to come to conclusions.One such example I would like to share with my readers.The decrease in the crime rate in the city of New York is a question of great debate.Till late eighties and early nineties the crime rate was quite high in the city of New York.But starting from early nineties crime rate plunged in a great way.People show different reasons behind this.Some people says that better policing did the miracle.Other says aging of population decreased the number of wrongdoers.Economists say improvement in the economy provided alternative jobs for the people who could have been engaged in criminal activities.But author of this book says that the person who was responsible for ebbing of crime rate was the woman who fought for Legality of Abortion two decades ago.Because of that woman abortion was legalized in the the states.Children who born despite their parent's wish are most likely to grow in an environment which will not enable them to become good human being.As a matter of fact a majority of them resorts to criminal activities when they grow up.So the author argues that as abortion was legalized so a majority of potential criminals were not even born.That caused a decrease in the number of criminals after two
 decade and hence crime rate decreased.You may not buy this argument of the author but  surely you  can not deny his power of imagination and ability to think out of the box.

Battle of "jantar Mantar" was won on the playground of Mumbai

All of you must have heard the old saying "The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton".
It means the discipline and tactical skills  The Duke of Wellington learned in playing fields of  Eton school helped
 him to became a successful general  he was against Napoleon.Now today when we analyze the secret behind the  success of  Anna Hazare's movement for Lokpal enactment we should remember this old saying.During last two months Indians were praying for their team's success in the cricket world cup.Over the years cricket has become a part of Indian nationalism.Every Indian imagines the success of his cricket team as his personal success.Today India is a "young nation".It has a young population more than any country in the world.This Young Population is the most vocal supporters of Indian cricket team.Today's Indian youth is disappointed
at the performances of politicians.Politicians have failed to keep pace with people's aspiration in a country which is seeing unprecedented growth in economy.With growing  economy and rising education aspirations are also growing so is the awareness about citizen's rights.So we see more and more Civil society movement beyond the boundaries of political movements.This time the timing of the movement was quite perfect.It is interesting that just after India's spectacular win in the World cup this movement gained momentum.Through the last two month's journey to the world cup patriotic sentiments were at all time high.It reached its pinnacle at the grand finale.After the the world cup win every Indian identified this win as their own.Now they are on the top of the world they can do anything they want.They can uproot corruption,defeat Pakisthan, fight communalism,dethrone China.....they can do anything.So at this juncture when Anna Hazare called for a mass movement for enactment of Lokpal Bill everybody joined him.It is a rare phenomena when  sporting success  translates into movements against corruption.

Anna Hazare:the new age Ghandhi

In recent past we have seen in Egypt what mass agitation can do.Now in our own backyard we are seeing
same type of mass agitation led by Gandhian Anna Hazare demanding Lokpal bill enactment.It was the political class that believed in the idea of Indian state.They fought against British Raj and made India Independent.No
one in the world believed that Indian state can function as a Democracy with majority of its electorate being illiterate.Still the political class believed the people of the country and engaged themselves in the democratic process.But after a decade or two the majority of population became sceptic about the intentions of the politicians in general.May be in a country with so much illiteracy where votes can be got in the name of cast,creed and religion the politicians had no honest intention for the development of the country.so the politicians took their countrymen for a ride.With time the "aspirant class" in India has grown rapidly.This "aspirant class" is the face of New India.They are young liberal middle class educated population in post economic reform
India.They can not be fooled by politicians so easily.They are most vocal about a political class which is full of ageing power hungry corrupt people.In the "justice for Jessica" agitation also  we have seen these young people in the frontline.Today in Jantar Mantar the "Tehrir Square" of India you will see these young turks forming majority of the crowd.What is interesting that  after India's world cup win people of the country had a
self belief that now they can achieve what they want.So they came in suuport of Anna Hazare in the same number as they came in celebration of India's victory.In last few months people have seen major scams like
commonwelth scam,2G scam,Adarsh housing.So now people feel "enough is enough".This demand for enactment of Lokpal bill is one occasion when people shows their anger against politicians.And their new found icon is Anna Hazare a gandhian social worker.

Confessions of an e-book reader..........

Friends here comes the confessions of a self proclaimed green crusader(or brand  ambassador of e-books).....
Its back to square one!I am going where I belong!!For all these months I was advocating for e-books and e-book reader devices,but now I really miss my good old books.These new age ebooks just cant replace
the tradiotional books.It says that old habits die hard.The book you love most is one which you can hold with two hands,can recognise by its smell and possess in its physical form.Even today I must say an ebook is easy to carry,more environment friendly etc etc.But personally I am more comfortable reading a printed book.The "selfish reader" in me will not  bother  if  few trees are to be cut  to produce my book! May be lack of proper e-book reader device(like Kindle) is the reason behind my apathy towards e-books.I planned to buy one kindle but that got delayed.Now it is the "temporay end" of my "flirting" with e-books.Come next week end I will buy some books to renew my ties with printed books.....

Books in their new Avatar

Yesterday I was reading an article on The New York Times.It discusses about how technological evolutions are changing the habits of reading books.The author was in a flight.When the flight was going to land an announcement  was heard requesting the the passengers to put down their books.Few years ago everyone would have been confused by this announcement.But not today.Everybody obediently switched off their kindles and ipads.This shows how widespread is the use of ebook reading devices nowadays.Gradually these are becoming part of our day to day life.May be in few years from now everybody will own a 6" library at his disposal!In recent past widespread use of mobile electronic gadgets are promoting this new trends of reading.There are different categories of devices.Some are dedicated ebook reader like Amazon kindle,Sony ebook reader.These devices are for reading books only in black letters on white background like conventional books.they dont support coloured text .Amazon and Sony argues that the book reader are not concerned about colour.Dedicated ebook reader have e-ink technology which makes the  text as good as text in a conventional book.Reading book on an Amazon kindle will not strain your eyes unlike reading book on a palmtop or on a laptop or smartphone.Some people argues that as habit of reading colour text with photos and videos is growing via internet,there are people who would like to read color text with photos on their mobile devices.The next two types of devices I will discuss are this type. Nook color by Burns and Noble  is having color text with some auxiliary features.These additional features let you do things beyond reading.The third type of devices are the iconic ipad and its "cheap" imitations like samsung Galaxy.Ipad is more than an ebook reader.It is a full fledged computer.So if you have ipad with you you dont need to carry ur ebook reader additionally.Though it does not have the advantages of e-ink technology as mentioned above.Competition is fierce among these three type of devices but ultimately people will decide in which form they will read book in future.

The question I asked Thomas L Friedman

"What is your view on the ban on outsourcing in the state of Ohio?Dont you think this will deny countries like india a level playing field in today's "Flat World"?Well...this was the question I asked Thomas L Friedman.If you cant recognize him then I must tell you he is the famous New York Times columnist who came up with the idea of the "Flat World".In his book "The World is Flat" he suggested that in today's world technology has enabled third world countries like India to compete with developed countries in a level playing field.Now as the competition becomes more intense the developed countries (especially the USA) resort to protectionist steps like ban on outsourcing.
Today it seems that Obama administration will go ahead with this anti outsourcing stance.I was quite eager to know what Friedman himself was thinking about this.So I asked him this question
through twitter.Will his "Flat World" cease to exist in near future?He has not replied as yet....

Is "green way of living" a luxury?

It is often articulated in developing countries like India that "going green" is a luxury.As the green measures will put a break on industrialization and building infrastructure.
The phycology of the people in developing countries can be understood by using Maslow's hierarchy of needs.Maslow's hierarchy says humans will fulfill basic needs before moving on to higher level ones. If you're unemployed and dont have a house to live global warming will not be your biggest concern.When a person is stuck at safety needs, they cannot rise to social needs.In the developing
countries we have most of the people pushed into fear/survival level.At that level, anything beyond personal selfish survival is disregarded, or seen as hurting survival.These people dont have time to
think about an environmental issue like global warming.They are quite busy earning their livelihood.

A similarity can be seen between today's developing states and southern states in USA during civil war.When president Lincoln proposed to abolish "slavery" the southern states violently opposed that move.These states were dependent primarily on slaves for agriculture which the
main occupation in the south.They opposed a noble idea like abolition of slavery only because it would affect their livelihood.

Lima syndrome=1/Stockholm syndrome !!!!

Dear friends yesterday I wrote about Stockholm syndrome.Now let me talk about "Lima syndrome" which is said to be the inverse of "Stockholm Syndrome".Unlike ""Stockholm syndrome", where hostages develop sympathy for their abductor, "Lima syndrome"is the result of the abductor / kidnapper sympathizing with his hostages. It was named after an abduction at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996, when members of a militant movement took hostage hundreds of people attending a party in the official residence of Japan's ambassador. Within a few hours, the abductors had set free most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, due to sympathy.

Goals:NOT to be revealed!!!

Do you have a goal?Do you announce it in public to motivate yourself or to get inspiration
from the people who are close to you?But in the opinion of music entrepreneur Derek Sivers
(as qouted in the NY times) if you announce your goal you have less chances of accomplishing
it.“Any time you have a goal, there are some steps that need to be done, some work that needs to be done in order to achieve it,” says Sivers. “Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you had actually done the work, but when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a social reality. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.”

So morale of the story is that "Got a plan?Best keep it Quiet....."!!

Stockholm Syndrome:a paradoxical psychological phenomenon

Recently in a book entitled " 3096 days" Natascha Kampusch , an Austrian woman has described her 3096 days of captivity.Her captor Wolfgang Priklopil locked her inside a basement for eight years.Some psychologists have described the relationship Natasha shared with her captor as Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition when the victim of an abduction identifies with the kidnapper and becomes attached to him or her.This prompted me to know more about this "Stockholm Syndrome".I would like share with you the interesting facts I encountered in the process.

What is stockholm syndrome?

In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness. The FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The term "Stockholm Syndrome" was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast.It was originally defined by psychiatrist Frank Ochberg to aid the management of hostage situations.

The following are viewed as the conditions necessary for Stockholm syndrome to occur

1)Hostages who develop Stockholm syndrome often view the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it. In this sense, the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.

2)The hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.

3)The hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist and face murder

4)The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness. Kindness serves as the cornerstone of Stockholm syndrome; the condition will not develop unless the captor exhibits it in some form toward the hostage.

Instances of stockholm syndrome in films

• In the "Bond movie" The World Is Not Enough, James Bond deduces that Elektra King, the female antagonist in the movie is affected by Stockholm Syndrome.

• The term Helsinki syndrome has been used erroneously to describe Stockholm syndrome, popularized by the movie Die Hard

• The story tag of the 2010 Bollywood and Kollywood movie, Raavan or Raavanan is based on Stockholm Syndrome.

History repeats itself at katyn

Last week polish presidential flight an aging Tu-154 crashed near smolensk airport.The aircraft was trying to land after three failed attempts.As a professional air traffic management executive I am tempted to comment on this unfortunate event.Lets start with the aircraft.These Russian made Tu-154 are withdrawn from operation all over the world.There have been 54 accidents involving Tu-154 in last four decades.There were dense fog over the air field.The air traffic control advised the pilot to divert to some other airport like Moscow.But the pilot disobeyed that instruction and after three failed attempts in the fourth attempt it met with the accident.Nowadays in modern airports there is a system called Instrument landing system(ILS).This system provides vertical and horizontal guidance to an approaching aircraft.Landing phase is the most crucial of all phases of a flight.Most of the accident takes place either at the time of landing or take off.In heavy fog also with the help of ILS aircraft can land even in zero visibility.But this system was not available in smolensk airport.As ILS was not available the aircraft had to see the terrain on its approach for landing.Due to heavy fog on that day the pilot could not see the terrain and it reportedly hit treetops and crashed into pieces.Only after through investigation the cause of accident will be clear.But this could be a reasonable guess.Now the question is why the pilot wanted to land so desperately when visibility was so poor.Some speculations are there that the pilot acted as per instruction given by polish top bosses including the president.The president Kaczynski desperately wanted to attend the commemoration of Katyn killings.Thousands of poles were slaughtered by soviet secret police in katyn forest back in 1940.The president was going to attend a ceremony commemorating that event.It is an irony that the plane crashed just a short drive from katyn forest.Katyn takes more polish toll.Destiny!!!

I am swaping my books.are you?

All of us love books.Recently we had a two week long books carnival in kolkata named "book fair".While roaming around book shops I was wondering about what would be the future of this fair after say ten years.Whether the crowd will be so patient and tolerant then also to overlook dusts, claustrophobic stalls ,near stampede situation for the sake of books.Given the alternative that ebook and ebook reader will provide to the reader its least likely that people will rush to book fair in the same number they do today.Electronic books or ebooks are also called digital books are e-texts which forms the digital media equivalent of conventional printed books.E-books are read on dedicated hardware devices.computers and mobile phones can also be used to read e-books.E-books can be in different formats html,pdf,doc.Dedicated e-book readers use e-ink technology.This e-ink can imitate the look of a printed work.Many of you must have felt irritated while going through a long text on a computer screen.But due to this e-ink technology in an e-book reader our eyes will not be strained.At present many e-book readers are available.Among then amazon kindle and sony e-book reader are most popular.Last but not the least I am planning to buy an amazon kindle sooner than later!!

Copenhagen:A resolution to be made to make our planet abetter place to live

"You cant solve a problem with the same mind which created it".This we should keep in mind when we go to copenhagen to decide future course of action to fight climate change.India was not the part of today's climate change.But as a responsible country we should we a part of the solution.

Ramoji film city .....an unforgettable experience

Recently I went to Ramoji film city in Hyderabad.We started early in the morning.We reached there around ten.From the entrance gate they provided buses.In the bus a guide described in most cinematic way all that came along the road.It seemed like a dreamland.Whatever we require in a film or to lead a life everything is present there.There are big gardens, palaces,Schools,hills,fountains,rail stations,parks... you say it and they have it.I wondered how much was the investment made at a time to see it come true.Not only money but a cinematic vision turned a hilly barren land into a Tourist's paradise.Hats off to Ramoji Rao!Throughout the day we tried explored the place inch by inch.

When we finished the combing operation we realised still there are places to see.
In between dance programmes were arranged to showcase the spirit of Ramoji film City.A film making ceremony was also arranged.Two children were selected from the audience to play as character.They played there first amateur first filmi roles in front of the audience.How background noises are made that was also shown.At last that short "film" with background music was shown.
This journey to the Utopian filmidunia will remain in our mind for years to come.

Hyderabad...comming of age of a city

Now I am in the city of Nizams ....Hyderabad.Through the ages the city has gone through
several changes.In the 16th century quli qutub shah who was ruler of Golcunda founded the city
in the name of his wife hyder mahal.Then during the period of Aurangzeb the city was concurred by the mughals.After the weakening of mughals the local ruler nizam become powerful.Later on in british period also nizam,s rule continued.After the independence of india nizam wanted it to be either independent dominion or to be with pakistan.but local uprising and pressure of being landlocked by indian state on all sides eventually made hyderabad a part of India.India accused nizam of giving pak ambassador of London a huge amount of money. The case is still subjudice in England.In last 10 years hyderabad gradually rechristened as cyberabad.With all frontline it companies comming for bussiness and with the surge of young it professionals from all parts of the country transformed the the city into a truly cosmopolitan one.

Still 2nd!

Recently Air France flight AFR447 met with most unfortunate accident.Over the Atlantic it
faced severe turbulence and thunderstorm.This occurrence compelled us to look back to all those unfortunate air crashes over the years.What I feel strange that a servey carried suggests that
air travel is still the 2nd safest mode of transport! Guess what is the safest mode of transport...........its travel by ESCALATOR.

Colonial hangover on civil aviation in india

We all know that each and every aircraft has a unique registration marking on it.That marking consists of five letters or numerals.Seeing the registration marking we come to know in which country that aircraft is registered.Aircrafts registration making in england starts with "G",in USA it starts with "N", and in India it starts with "VT".You know why?Because this nomenclature was decided before independence.It was decided by apex body in world civil aviation ICAO.At that time India was a british colony.So that "VT " meant viceroy's territory.
Its amazing that after 60 years of independence Indian state has not taken any initiative to change it.

Agatha christie:The the undisputed queen of crime stories

last two weeks i was occupied with two novels of agatha christie...its long time since i read an unputdownable book like these..once you start to read a novel you have only one option to finish it..you will forget all other works...