Imagine-- Greatest Song of All Time

(lyrics)
Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Become a famous blogger (by Dave)

I found it interesting!!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

'Please, sir, I want some more'

How many of you still remember the story of Oliver Twist that we came across during our school days? Poor soul, he asked for another portion of gruel and got the thrashing of his life by the well-fed gentlemen of the workhouse.

This classic by Dickens is relevant still today with many Olivers still toiling in some sweat-shops, still beaten to pulp, still under-fed, orphaned and still exploited by the Fagins of the world.

The recent news-article which highlighted that young children were stitching clothes for clothing retailer Gap Inc. in a New Delhi factory has created furor abroad and made the company to scamper for cover. Britain's Observer newspaper reported that it had found children making clothes with Gap labels in a filthy sweat-shop in New Delhi. It quoted the children as saying they were from poor parts of India and had been sold to the sweatshop by their impoverished families.

Imagine a company that has its slogan as hippy as Peace. Love. Gap being involved in something as demeaning as Child Labor. When I was going through the news article I was filled with a sense of déjà vu… to those dramatic discussions we have had during my MBA days about CHILD Labor vis-a-vis The Right to Earn Your Living.

Merely stating/identifying the problem is only half the job done… the logical step forward is to provide solutions. Keeping it in limbo would not only aggravate the already burning issue of child labor it would make them more prone to inhuman work-conditions and exploitation.

One may argue against child labor and continue doing so… but what we need to understand is the ground condition… Can we possibly compare and contrast the living standards in an opulent society to the bashti dwellers in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and India? Can mere tokenism of ‘human-rights’ activists ameliorate the basic needs of the shanty-dwellers for whom the only comfort is that they are earning enough to keep the wolves at bay. Who needs education for education’s sake? My point of view is that why do we need to put an end to their ‘right to live’ so that they can enjoy ‘human rights’. If we ban all the sweat-shops… let us also provide them some sort of social security… if we talk of education then let us first feed them. What we need to remember is that--‘Education on an empty stomach doesn’t make us more human than we already are!’

Imagine a family consisting of 5-6 members, impoverished and what harm it is for them to lend some of their children to work in those industries so that they can stop themselves from starving to death. 20-25 Rs. per day in USA might be a pittance but in countries where many people are living below poverty line they can’t complain much. Economically speaking the demand-supply gap comes into play… for every child you intend to take away from the sweat-shops there will be another set of kids ready to fill-in the space.

This issue will be there as long as we don’t fight the real issue… that of poverty. Child labor is just a symptom that we’ve failed miserably to nip in the bud. What does a person do when he is desperate to survive? Quite logically he’ll try to grab every morsel that comes his way. When we decide morality (a pet project of the intelligentsia) do we think about the greatest dharma… that of feeding a hungry body? What’s the meaning of God, rights, good vs. bad, education if you can’t even manage to keep you skin and bones together? I don’t give a hoot to those who says I’m being materialistic… I believe that there is no greater deed than feeding an empty stomach… everything else follows.
Abolish child labor, provide them education, give them food and only then one will get my vote for the issue. Otherwise it’s all intellectual Bull****

The MNC companies are also to be blamed in some way or the other… in order to shore up their margins they squeeze up the contractors in the 3rd world countries and these sub-contractors take up such work due to heavy competition, knowing very well that there are hundred other units who are willing to do the same job at even slightly lesser fee. No able to cope with the expenses, these contractors pass on the burden to sub-contractors who in –turn employ children to finish off the work. Children are nimble enough o do the intricate design work on the clothes and their wages are abominably low as compared to the adults. Thus runs the vicious cycle and what the affluent connoisseurs of haute couture ends up wearing is actually made by not-so-fortunate kids in such places as Bangladesh, India etc.
Do we expect the Govt. to compensate/rehabilitate the unfortunate children? We all know the plight of the Sivakasi children who have seen such horrendous days working as bonded labor in the cracker industry… and despite media uproar nothing substantial has been done and my hunch is that nothing will be done for many many years to come.

A country over-populated with a million hungry mouths brings along with it its own sets of priorities. We are at one hand a ‘nuclear’ super-power, a ‘wannabe’ economic superpower and on the other hand we’ve child labors, communal riots, and slums. This dichotomy is very evident and circumstances makes mince-meats of ‘political-correctness’ and ‘human-rights’. Whose side would you take when a young, widowed mother of an infant takes to prostitution to feed her baby? Is it violation of ‘human-rights’ or just the intrinsic human tendency to ‘adapt’ and survive depending on the situation.

The road forward for these MNCs who have turned towards cost-cutting by off-shoring their work should comprise of a few important measures. If implemented in good faith and stringent follow-up would help to solve atleast a part of the problem.

• Ensure that children below 14 are not employed
• Good working environment
• Expert supervision
• Guaranteed and transparent wage structure; reduce role of middle-men
• Minimum work hour as stipulated by the Factories Act
• Provide for vocational training/education program during the weekends
• Medical facilities should be provided
• Games and recreation should be provided
• Job should be ensured when these children grows up as young adults
• Surprise visits by Inspectors to ensure that the rules are followed and strict penalties for default on any count

It is understandable that these MNCs also have their own sets of problem but they can’t absolve themselves of their responsibilities. The Govt. can provide them with tax sops for such an initiative which will make the situation a Win-Win one for all concerned.

In India people have grown up thinking that rules can be bent as much as they can and corruption is the de-facto social lubricant. Rules are only on paper with little Govt. intervention and the onus lies on them to monitor the implementation of the stated rules.

So, as long as we don’t tackle these problems in the right earnest the Olivers of this world will continue to ask for more, and then get beaten for exactly the same reason.

Taare Zameen Par--Stars on Earth

What's the purpose of Cinema? Issit just entertainment? Given the immense power of the moving/talking pictures I guess its many things rolled into one..

देखों इन्हें भी ओश कि बूंदें

पत्तों कि गोड में आस्मा से कूदे

अंग्राई ले फिर, करवत बदल कर

नाजूक सी मोती, हंश दे फीसल कर

खो ना जाए यह तारे ज़मीन पर

[Title song: Taare Zameen Par by Shankar Ehsaan Loy]

Notwithstanding the media blitzkreig of OSO and the equally potent daisy-cutters of Saawariya one film has caught my attention nevertheless. Although Aamir Khan and a 'special' child seems like an unlikely candidate to compete against the charisma of SRK and the wonder-stroke of Bhansali... but there is some earthy, warm feeling about Taare Zameen Par... and it has managed to climb to the Top of my "Must Watch" list. Sorry SRK and SLB but I'm sick of seeing all of you everytime I flick through my newspaper, click my TV remote. Being a Marketing student myself makes me abhor over-the-top marketing... as I believe that a good product doesn't need Kill Bill publicity and gimmick... one suggestion is to let your film speak and stand out on its merit.

Directed by the extremely talented and critically acclaimed actor Aamir Khan Taare Zameen Par is slated for a late December release. It promises to be a sensitive, poignant and 'realistic' movie about a 'special' child and the world around him.

Everyone of us has got a story within us but a few of us has the courage to paint the canvas of that story with our imagination, grit and the motivation to walk down the road long forgotten. How many of the present film makers would have the courage to make a film about a dyslexic child and his teacher? These kind of storeis are like pariahs to the mainstream film fraternity... which is mainly due to the very commercial nature of our films as well as the general public. The number of Indian commercial movies without mindless blood and gore, foreign locations, dhinchak item numbers and slap stick comedies can be counted on our finger tips. But off late experimental movies makers have tried to break the shackles with wonderful although small budget movies like Being Cyrus, Bheja Fry, Black Friday, Hazaroon Khwaishein Aisi. In my opinion Taare Zameen Par is a step in the right direction.

Soulful music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and a seemingly sensitive and innocent story with the added charisma of Aamir Khan and a host of kids has managed to attract attention of the discerning people. Although it pales in comparison to OSO and Saawariya in terms of marketing blitz but I am sure every good film speaks for itself and sometimes word-of-mouth publicity can work wonders... provided the movie is well made. We've all heard from the critics and the aam-janta about some movies being 'arty' type and some being typical 'bollywood' masala type... but what we fail to understand is that a film can either can be a good film or a bad film... Give me a good 'art' film and i'll watch it many times over and give me a bad 'masala' film and I won't even care to watch it [eg. RGV ki AAG being the most recent example].

Taare Zameen Par from what I've read and seen is about childhood, innocence and a-day-in-the-life kind of story of special kids. If they manage to protray even half of what the promos and trailers promises then I think our society would learn to treat these 'special' kids with more compassion and understanding. Sensitivity and a humane touch is what these special kids wants and deserves and hats off to Aamir Khan and his team for believing in such a poignant story.

La vie est belle-- Life is Beautiful

"हुई मुद्दत के घलिब मर गया पर याद आता है,वोह हर एक बात पे कहना के यूं होता टोह क्या होता" -मिर्ज़ा घलिब

This segment tries to bring out the life story of a man through a poet's pen. Through verses (slightly melancholic and brooding!) I've tried to capture the myriad emotions that one comes across in Life. It is an amateurish attempt at best and may sound sappy at times but that's the way it has shaped out over the years. If you can connect with the underlying emotions I think I can escape for many a brickbats!!

Inorder to maintain a good-enuf flow I've quarantined :-) the 'Poetry' section under a different blog. Just click on the hyperlink below to browse. Happy reading

Prisoner of the Mind

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prisoner of the mind is

what life has made out of me.

Every flower that I touched

turned into a damnation, a forlorn curse.

How much do you want me to pretend…

That I am not dead yet?

How much do I have to smile…

To hide the tears?

The mind is causing me all the pain

Showing me motifs that just don’t fade.

Like a charlatan… fighting hidden demons

Like a child…chasing imaginary butterflies.

Existence is blurred

In a mire of emotions.

A steely silence lulls me to sleep

Only to jostle me up the next moment.

Imaginary silhouettes are clouding my senses

Doomed for life… in a living hell.

After all, what else can you say of a man

Who’s but a prisoner of his own mind!

oooooooooooooooooo

ooo (click)Mayabini 00o

oooooooooooooooooo

Sound of Music-- Whatte Fun!!

Being eternally stuck on the Hosur Road leading to my office in Electronics City, Bangalore every working day one thing remains a constant companion—my FM enabled Cellphone which helps to maintain atleast a semblance of sanity. From Pink Floyd to Kishore, Eminem to Om-Shanti-Om all tries to mollycoddle my frayed nerves due to the fri**ing traffic jams which is mainly due to massive construction and partly due to the nauseating traffic sense of some morons which thinks that the whole world is a pig-sty and they can do whatever they like. [Ok! Ok! Let’s not divert from the topic J ]. The friendly voice of the Radio Jocks and the assorted mix of music acts as aphrodisiac and shields from the madness all around. The radio ads sometimes are too loud but free-to-air means they’ll need some revenue generating mechanism to keep their heads over water and airing of ads takes care of that… and no major complaints about them except that they can improve upon the storyboards of some of the ads which invariably sound like they are hawking some ‘jari-bootis’ in a busy railway station J
Remember how the entire story of Lage Raho Munnabhai was married around Gandhigiri and how radio played its role to propagate it? Although the sour lemon was that they showed WorldSpace as a FM radio channel although it’s a satellite radio service.

The new-found pervasiveness of the FM radio in buses, cars, mobiles, shops, restaurants and homes kind of stirred me to do some ‘wiki’ search and find out more!!

MTV was launched in the early ‘80s with its broadcast of the song ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ and it became a kind of epitaph for the radio and its stars. Obituaries were written, people became nostalgic about the good times they have had during a lazy Sunday morning, with the sunrays bathing the verandah of the cottage and the bulky radio nearby… reverberating the whole landscape with the mellifluous voice of the radio stars… with some constant sound of static. Those were the magical days when radio was the only source of infotainment and was an integral part of popular culture with the radio taking multiple roles of a friend, philosopher and guide. AIR and Radio Ceylon created their own band of followers in India and it made the presenter of the shows nothing sort of demi-Gods. After all, who can match up to the honeyed, rich baritone voice of Ameen Sayani… a fact corroborated by the number of RJs who tried to copy his style!

But with the advent of the all pervasive TV and its glitz came the imminent death blow to the radio. The radio suddenly went into a black-hole of anonymity and slowly but surely was heading towards its final destination… oblivion!!

Every beginning must have an end and every end must give birth to a new beginning--- thus runs the circle of karma and fortunately the ubiquitous radio isn’t one of those glorious exceptions!! And off late the growth of the FM radio sector in India has been nothing sort of spectacular and it reiterates that radio is on its way back to capture the collective imagination of the people old and young alike. After the veritable debacle of the initial stages of the controlled allotment of All India Radio’s airtime blocks the Second Phase has been able to generate ample interests amongst the operators, advertisers and the listeners. This has been possible due to the changes in the policies and upgrading of the requisite infrastructure that has made the environment conducive for the viability of the FM radio channels. The key additions are-
Expansion of Network
Availability of Listenership Data
Rationalization of License Fees
Local Advertising
Satellite Radio / Digital Audio Broadcast /Internet radio

As a spin-off of the growth of FM Radio listenership the market for FM radio has gone up. Radios in various shape, sizes, color and design dots the city space… which is a welcome sign for all stakeholders that the radio is being heard and that too in good numbers.

The future of the FM radio sector in India depends on factors like government regulations, competition amongst the various players, the creative content of the programs aired, the revenue models etc. Listeners will be spoilt for choices and ultimately only the fittest will survive. Agility in planning and executing innovative ideas in generating advertising revenues, program content and hence standing out of the clutter will ensure that radio survives beyond the initial hype and hoopla. Various value added services like visual radio, internet radio will ensure that radio transcends its obvious boundaries to become something ethereal which will be like some sweet music to everyone’s ears.