Another Day in Paradise

This is a topic, I am not an expert on but then whatever comments I make is based on my general sense of good & bad; which essentially is developed based on my religious belief and upbringing which I defended in a previous post of mine.

I have in recent times witnessed a lot of lapses in Parenting but then Shilpa’s Post finally triggered me to right this one. Here are some instances I have witnessed-

“A small gathering in the house, and breezer was served. A couple with children, aged around 10 years, allowed them to have sips/gulps from the drink.”

“A party and a large gathering the entire family is invited, everyone is drinking starting from beer, scotch, to tequila including the non adults in the party.”

“A mother during a party gives some spoonful of vodka to her toddler less than a year old.”

“Two kids discussing when they meet in a social gathering, where one of them asks other to have a beer. The other one refuses saying the parental restrictions and the other one counters telling that he always has a drink with the parents.”

All these instances have happened in front of me, the background of the kids is generally middle and upper middle class. The parents are supposedly super educated i.e. have completed their B. Tech, Mtech, MBA etc. and maintain an English speaking culture amongst them and the kids, send them to classes starting from singing, dancing, karate to salsa, tango and personality development.

Now very honestly, I don’t condone drinking for anyone and when it comes to women I believe they harm them more and for kids my only reaction is being aghast, even at the thought of it.

I know in countries like UK & US, there is a agency or a watch dog which keeps an eye on how the children are treated and an act like any of the above would be deemed illegal for the parents. And for repeated offenders the agency reserves the right to place the children in a more responsible home. In short the way the children of the country are grown up is the collective responsibility of the country and is implemented quite responsibly and rigorously.

On the contrary, India is a different land all together where we as a country are struggling to implement education for all, abolition of child labor. I am very sure that there is a law which makes the parents condoning of Alcohol below the minimum drinking age illegal but then it is never implemented. In India you can never be sure of that if you tip off the names of the people your identity would be concealed (which obviously belong to your social circle) and also the cops would come and take a bribe from the parents and leave things at that.

Now my views are totally based on the premise, that alcohol is not the best of the edible things around, not for anyone and not for kids for sure. Given the situation in India some 20 years ago the people in your social circle it was against our culture and our religion too. There would be elders who would point out that’s wrong; and even the so called forward minded drinking people would not introduce their children to alcohol. There used to be a social taboo, a religious tenet against drinking and even the people who used to drink regularly were ashamed and avoided doing it in front of their parents, children and immediate family.

Now today, “I drink with my parents” is one of the most common answers I hear from youngster I talk to these days on the topic of alcohol. In my humble opinion the legal route to this problem would never work in a country like ours. Nor does this mean I support the route of “Ram Sena” and their act of vandalism in Mangalore. But the way we have diluted the fabric of our religious tenets for the comfort and forgotten that the advancement for the sake of advancement should not be accepted.

I certainly feel that there is a need to ask that what kind of world we are creating and who governs the individual decisions that have an impact on the overall society. Consider the family and child below (Excerpt lifted and mildly edited from Wikipedia)

“He was asthmatic and was given special attention in his childhood. He was educated at the elite Mayo College in Ajmer. He then completed two years of undergraduate courses in Commerce at a college in Chandigarh. He initially thought of completing an MBA, but he joined the family business instead. He also built up the Piccadilly hotel chain including a pub-cum-discothèque in Chandigarh, and a theatre.”

Everything sounds hunky and dory and great choices above but then I believe in the family nobody questioned that why a boy less than 22 years of age has started drinking or entered in pub & disco business. We as a society will only cry foul when that 22 year old boy shoots Jessica Lal for not serving him a drink. I question the fact that he got into Alcohol and nobody in the family was aware or did anything to stop him. I don’t sympathize or support Manu Sharma but then I also believe 22 is a young age and there are mistakes you might make. There should always be a social guidelines & a check on people to avoid them from being fatal for them and the others.

This brings me back to the initial issues that how do we, as a society, keep our checks & balances? How do we distinguish right from the wrong? Is our legal system strong enough?

I believe the answer is within a broad sense of right and wrong which essentially lies in religious tenets and way of life which continuously evolve with time.

We are doing an Urban Shots event yet again, this time at-

Venue: Reliance Time Out, Cunningham Road, Bangalore

Date: Feb 26, 2011 at 5:00 PM

Now I can assure you with Ahmed & Malathi this is going to be one of the most entertaining discussions. As me & Ahmed simply don’t seem to agree on most of the things we discuss and arguing around two most contrasting world views. With Malathi the thing is entirely different, despite her impeccable resume spanning from social service to foreign affairs what fill me in awe of her is her stint with Indian Express; for someone who has grown up reading Indian Express and find a idol in Arun Shourie you can be assured that the discussions with her would be cherished. So if you are in Bangalore, I don’t think this is an event to miss. See you on Saturday 🙂

Author: Abhay Nagranjan

Publisher: Srishti Publishers

Price: 100/-

Corporate Atyachar is another book in the league of what I call been there done that books. The book spins a story around a fresh out of college graduate in the world of HNI (High Net-worth Individual) Banking and wealth management. Though the story of the book revolves around some clichéd topics like horrifying weirdo clients, a disgusting boss, and the nuances of the wealth management industry; the essence of the book lies in the way the story has been told. The best part which makes the book different and more enjoyable is that Abhay has stayed clear off the usual romance angle in the book and has stuck to what he does the best, adding situational humor in the wealth management setup.

The protagonist is fresh out of college, with no certain direction or goal in lives. He finds his life in the job where he submerges himself to survive and extremely disgusting boss which he names as Human Ball Scratcher (HBS). The characterizations are fairly good bringing out the finer aspects of the industry and highlighting the idiosyncrasies of the high profile net-worth clients. The story of a dominating banker, a puppy loving yuppie, Thai massage loving old man all leave a very amusing note in your mind enjoying the situational humor.

The story is pretty fast paced and well written, however the event sequence is rather flat. The story begins with a moderate pace and maintains it through out the book. The ending of the book is not what we call as firmly terminal, the author has left it dangling in a subtle manner so that the scope is sequel cannot be ruled out. On the downside the editing effort on the book could have been a bit better; some grammatical and contextual mistakes could have been avoided.

Summary: A nice realistic tale of a guy who is caught in wealth management industry amidst horrible clients and a dreadful boss. A nice light read for entertainment and can be surely picked up for a nice time on 2-3 hour flight.

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Today morning IHM pointed me to a tweet of the famous author Taslima Nasreen, she tweeted, ‘When religion ruled the world, it was called ‘The Dark Ages’. A very profound thought, quite apt and significant too, indeed religion did some glaring mistakes that took humanity backward in leaps. When I say this I am talking about all the religions which have had the fair share of ill practices.

However, I had some basic disagreements with the statement. Though the statement stands in what we would call as matter of fact, but the intent was to provide a satirical contrast, on how the world was referred being in a dark age when it was ruled by religion. I have doubts has the world we live in today been a better world, than it was in dark ages? The humans or homo-sapiens as the science would call them have become more humane when the world moved towards from the aforementioned darkness to light?

Secondly, if religion was not a perfect ruler of the world and has been replaced now then who or what is the new ruler of the world? The probable list of answer includes Corporations like BP, Enron, Satyam, Goldman Sachs or Politicians of the new order like George Bush, Mubarak, A Raja, and Suresh Kalmadi or the human greed or the zillion other things which appear to be wrong in our faces but still lead the way we lead our lives.

I am not a supporter of religious sycophancy but then I am a believer of religion, I do not believe in the perfection of religion but I do believe that the religion can be reformed by addressing the outdated & the evil. My problem with the current world order is we ourselves don’t know what we are being ruled by. There are no tenets for the human behavior in the current order, but each to its own. So when the CEO of the multinational corporations guzzling billions of dollars worth of money from tax payers indulges in  million dollar Persian rugs for his office or when one of the highest ranking police official rapes a minor who plays tennis in the association grounds where he is the chairman are remorseless and absolved of their own guilt. The mind sometimes questions if actually the dark as it seemed in the past may be wasn’t that dark. The religion & the tenets of the religious life which kept the barbarian in the common man in check may be were not entirely flawed as the world order.

I don’t have answers to these questions, and I really don’t believe that anyone else has these answers as of now. It’s only for time to tell that this abyss is the darkness just before dawn or the closed tunnel of no hope. It’s only for the future to tell that the human race would evolve for a new world order or would stick to the old world order.

Author: Gayatri Devi

Publisher: Rupa & Co.

Price: 495/-

A Princess Remembers is a very well written autobiography by Late Gayatri Devi, the maharani of Jaipur. I picked up the book primarily for the reason to know more about one of the most beautiful Indian women, I am not sure but she just might be the first Indian women to be listed in the 10 most beautiful women of the world by Vogue. The book however was the complete contrast to my expectations as it was everything but the story about a life of a beautiful woman and I must add that it exceeded my expectations by a mile.

The book is a brilliant tale of the lives of the royal families of the princely states. The book is a glimpse of the contribution the royal families in gradually eradicating the menaces from the society like ‘Purdah’. The book also in a small yet significant manner reflects that how the subjects of the princely states loved, respected and connected the bond with their rulers explaining why some parliamentary seats have never been taken away from the ruling family despite more than 60 years of democracy.

Another thing which book gave me an insight into was a different aspect of the freedom struggle of India. I always believed that the freedom struggle was joyous moment for every Indian apart from the communal violence which gripped the country. The book enlightened me with the plight or downfall of the royal families and how they had happily sacrificed the standard of their lives and status to ensure a single entity of India would be formed.

I am not sure how much the other readers would relate to it, but it shed the light on the ways of Congress and it’s corrupt and power hungry ways starting right from 1947. Personally speaking reading the headlines about the rampant corruption today, I could relate that this has been the tradition since the Indian independence. Also the book made me aware about the efforts & works of C. Rajgopalachari (the first governor general of India) to form a transparent, and ethical opposition against congress.

The book is an interesting and very evenly paced read starting from the childhood of Gayatri Devi’s mother to her own struggle to represent her people in the democratic setup. The book is very well written ensuring almost all the aspects of her life are covered in detail for the reader to have a holistic picture, at the same time the flow has enough pace to engage the reader throughout the length of the book.

I am not very sure what would have been the purpose when Lt. Gayatri Devi wrote this book, but it sure broadened my perspectives about her from the one of the most beautiful Indian women to the modern Indian women in the early & mid 20^th century, a social reformer, a concerned & ground rooted politician, and an elegant sports person.

The book is one of the gems if you like the autobiography genre; it could have been better if her adult life would have been covered in as much depth as her childhood and romance. But still the books makes for a totally worthwhile read.

Summary: A riveting tale of a princess & a maharani living in the era from the royalty to a democracy surviving and succeeding the transformation. The book is light and enjoyable read written in a simplistic and elegant way. A must read for Autobiography fans.

Rating: 4.5 / 5