An Excellent Product Idea

Train travel is quite a beneficial form of travel especially for a person like me who has got a personal blog and therefore is always on to the look out for new subjects to write about so that the blog is always up to date and running. For the past month or so I have been a frequent traveler plying through the railway lines of the state twice in a week and this journey is certainly not in search of a subject for my blog, but often gives me some food for thought and sometimes some really good subjects to right about as well. One such recent travel had given me an occasion to get acquainted with a person with a rather smart new product idea. He was a train vendor and he has got a very unique and sensible product with him. While writing this piece, I hope he will pardon me if I borrow some of the words that he himself has used while marketing his product.

We all, at some point of time or the other, would have been a participant in a long queue to obtain some application form from some Government offices. And we all pretty much know the agony we have to face to get that simple piece of paper and, as if the long queue alone is not enough, there are also different issues raised by the officials there, as if their sole intention is to deny us the easy access of that application form. More than that most of us are absolutely oblivious about the places from where we would get a particular form. So to sum up, to obtain a form we have to first know the place from where we could get the form and for that you have to ask a multitude of people who would certainly give you multitude of answers, get to the place by traveling some distance since some forms will be produced only from one center throughout the state, then stand at the queue, then have a verbal scuffle with the officials there and of course wait for the officialdom to take pity on you and finally give you the required form. This is a real ordeal which most of us have faced sometime or the other. This is where the product that we are going to discuss about comes into play.

The vendor in the train claims that he or his family members no longer go to Government offices for getting any of the forms, instead he is carrying about 150 different types of forms with him always so that he can use it whenever he requires it. If you are thinking at the frivolousness of carrying about 150 forms with you always, then wait a minute. He is not carrying it in the physical form instead he is having a CD in which the soft copies of all these forms are there. And that seems to be a pretty good product idea, isn't it ? So anyone needing any form can readily get it form the CD and print it out and use it. If you don't have a printing facility, then just get into a DTP center find the form and take the print out. To further strengthen his case the vendor also states that many government departments accepts forms taken as print outs by the user himself and gives the example of many departments having online forms . He further claims that he had spent about a year and about one lakh rupees for traveling and collecting this much forms from different places and put them all into a CD. Checking the veracity of this statement by him is not at all something that would interest us, but the product is certainly something that would arose anyone's curiosity. Now, the vendor says that his product can be used not only by individual users but also by DTP centers by providing the service of getting lay users the form he needs and charging a price for that. The price of the product is Rs.50 but the vendor says that as an introductory price he is charging only Rs.30.

Two things have to be given utmost credit here - first is the new product idea and the second the new entrepreneur. Here is a product idea that no one had thought about before, for which there is going to be good demand as the product is worthy enough and the price is quite reasonable. Here is an entrepreneur who dared to think big, think about a new idea and not only did he thought about it, but he also transformed his thought into action and that too transformed it successfully. Now it is up to us to decide whether to buy his product and stay away from the long queues that we are so much used to, or continue squandering our time waiting in the queue believing with (waning) hope that we would reach the destination counter sooner rather than later.

You Got it Wrong Mr.Mush

Mr.Musharraf, as we are learning to call him after he jettisoned, rather, mournfully relinquished, his army uniform, had got things absolutely wrong. He introduced Emergency, proposed the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), expelled the Supreme Court Chief Justice Ifthikar Choudhary, curtailed the human rights of the population and proclaimed himself as the sole ruler of the Muslim country. All these factors have only resulted in reducing his popularity among the masses and his credibility in the eyes of the international community. Again, speaking about his popularity, it was never quite high for him to get worried about any diminution of it, but it had got still worse and reached a level where there had been wide spread mass protest against his autocratic rule with the emergency in place.

If one would contemplate the places where Mr.Mush had gone wrong - for that matter a very close perusal of the facts is not needed, instead anyone with a little of common sense can hardly miss his failure points - it all started with his declaration of Emergency on November. This was certainly a move to counter any decision the Supreme Court might had taken against his re-election on October. With the declaration of emergency he has defeated every possible move of his critics to rule him out of his incumbent position as the Head of the State. One of the most unpopular decision he had taken is the introduction of Provisional Constitution where by curtailing the legal human rights of the people and this came under a lot of criticism from inside and outside the country. He banned protests against him, banned all private television channels, arrested people who were protesting against him, put lawyers under house arrest, anointed hand picked people as judges in the Supreme Court and so on.

Now Mr.Musharraf is speaking about lifting the Emergency and conducting "free and fair" elections. With the absence of an autonomous election commission and with the judiciary playing to the tunes of Mr.Musharraf, one could hardly expect a fair and transparent election. There are scepticism that President Musharraf would dare to do pre-election and post-election rigging to manipulate the election result to suit him and would baptize the political party that supports him , the PML(Q) to reign at the Parliament. But the pro-Musharraf administration is saying that they have done everything possible to conduct a free and fair election with election observers from different countries already present there at Pakistan.

The most significant issue about the present situation there at Pakistan is the absence of human rights. There is no law and order, there is no proper judicial system to take care of the legal rights of the people and there is no environment for the freedom of speech and expression. The international community is not doing enough to change this situation. The human rights groups in Pakistan are fighting hard to reclaim their lost right, they should be given moral support by all countries who believe in freedom and democracy, international human rights agencies should pressurize the international community to act in favor of bringing normalcy back in Pakistan, there should be enough mechanism in place to showcase the human rights activism happening in Pakistan to the international community where by this struggle can increase the confidence of all human rights activists across the world and the international agencies working on human rights viz. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, OHCHR etc. should come forward to take up this issue to the world stage.

There are a lot of things to be done to bring down the arrogant dictator Mr.Mush from his position as the President of Pakistan and also a lot of things to be done to bring back democracy in that country. Pakistanis should see this as an golden opportunity to wipe off Pakistan military's age old demeanor of usurping power from the democratically elected government. Of course one can't help but think that the end is near for Mr.Musharraf's dream run as the Chief Executive of his country and he has himself to blame for that because he always got everything absolutely wrong.

LDF Government’s Governing Woes

Some people have got the idea that bad governance is tantamount to no governance. But this writer feels that it is a very wrong presumption and believes that it is always good to have a government running a bad government rather than a government without any governance at all. This argument can be proved effectively by using the example of the present government headed by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala.

The government that came into existence after getting a big majority in the legislative assembly, has failed miserably in generating any hope in the minds of the people about any good governance. More importantly the government is now mired in a lot of controversies, corruption charges, factionalism, contempt of court charges and so on. But the most important factor that had affected the common man was the dreadful condition of the roads in Kerala. It is often being said in Kerala that the condition of the roads had never been so terrible in the history of the State. Still worse was the Government’s reaction to such a shoddier state of affair. That the government is incapable of taking even a tactical decision like maintenance of roads, leave alone strategic ones, shows the inept and clumsy nature of the LDF government.

The CPI(M), which is heading the coalition government is itself now mired in factionalism that they can hardly find enough time to give proper consideration to their governing duties. The condition of other parties of the LDF front is not any different either. Moreover there are conflicts and hostilities between the parties of the front as well. The recent spat between the minister Sudhakaran of CPI(M) and the CPI Secretary Veliyam Bhargavan is a good example for the same. Day by day the woes of the government are increasing and the internal feud is not making things any better for the them. The recent controversy of the Sabarimala aravana is a shocking example of the internal fight within the LDF front. The Devasom committee members, of course from different parties, are fighting among themselves thereby forgetting the need for a better governance of the temple affairs. This has become an indelible stigma on the government about which, disgustingly enough, they are not worried about.

The latest trend of this government is to blame everything on the civil servants to hide its incapability of doing things and lack of political will. It even got to the extend of the resignation of the former Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob. There are also political pressure on the government to remove capable officials from their present positions when they are doing something against the whims and fancies of the ruling parties. Removal of Suresh Kumar IAS from the Munnar Mission and MGA Raman from the jail DGP posts are examples of the same. These deeds of the Government haven't done any good to their credibility, if they had some. The pig-headed stubbornness of the Government is all the more evident in it's callous denial of any enquiry into any possible foul play on the same issue.

The life and property of the common man has no security in the present day Kerala. We all are aware about what happened at Changanassery, where there was a clash between the SFI and ABVP students and people from outside and a dutiful Police Officer attained martyrdom while doing his duty. There was no real probe into the issue and before the Police could arrest any perpetrators the Home Minister, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from Trivandrum has declared that the ABVP is behind the attack. Any sensible person would know that both SFI and ABVP people were involved in the attack and the Minister had declared as he did there was just to save activists of his party from getting arrested. Worse, the Police had arrested some very innocent people on charges of instigating violence and killing the Police Officer. The sad plight of those innocent people are really worrisome and creates a big question mark in the minds of the common men about the safety he or she has in the present scenario with the LDF, headed by CPI(M), in the Government. Though the Home Minister is not interested in doing anything to maintain peace and tranquility in the state, one could only wonder what drives his inner self to bring a lot of so-called "reforms" in the different jails in the state. One cant be blamed if he/she thinks that it is only better to be at some jails rather than being in the outside world in the present day Kerala state because this ministry has done a lot of things for the betterment of jails than anything else. Kudos Home Minster, Kudos.

One single Minister who stands out from the rest, even if more often for wrong reasons, is Mr.Sudhakaran. Within a short span of time as Minister he has become notorious with his childish remarks and joker-like expressions. He is certainly the buffoon of the cabinet and always makes some issues or the other for the lay people to laugh at. Though there are less number of people who doubts the person's integrity, there is a feeling among the masses that he is not eligible for the post of a Minister because he often makes the mockery of his position in the eyes of the public and to the outside world. A state like Kerala can hardly afford such a frivolously silly Minister. He often conceals his inefficiency through his loud stupid remarks on the officers and all his critics. Such a person is not at all fit to be a minister and its a ill-fate of the Malayalees that we have to endure such a ludicrously sick person as our Minister. It would be better for Mr.Sudhakaran to resign his position as Minister and take some position in his party - CPI(M) where he might find some people who can bear with his stupidity and might even have the great heart to hail him as the greatest candid leader ever and also anoint him as the savior of the downtrodden and the voice of the voice-less common man.

This Government has stretched the limit of the endurance of the common people - there is no governance, there is no order, there is no peace, there is no development, there is no security for the life and property of the common man, and of course there is no aravana at Sabarimala. This writer, with the hope of being the "voice of the voice less", though for a very small time period, just wants to tell this government one thing - if you don't know how to govern, then just GET LOST.

Hey Selectors, Where is the Wall

If there is, at any point of time, a national debate on the subject of selecting the best batsman Indian cricket has ever produced, I don't think there would be a great debate. Because statistics and memories of people together will tell that it is Sachin Tendulkar. The Master himself, is one of the greatest cricketers of all times and is also considered as the greatest One Day cricketer ever. Now the question comes on who will succeed Tendulkar on that list of India's greatest batsmen. Arguably, it would be Rahul Dravid, surpassing the great Sunil Gavaskar, for Dravid is the Great Wall of India, widely considered as the greatest Number 3 batsman India ever had. But this fact creates a major doubt in this writer, which he guess can be answered only by the Selectors of the BCCI - Where is the Wall ?

It can only be considered ridiculous that such a great batsman has been overlooked for selection in the ODIs against such a strong opponent like Pakistan. Of course its true that India has won the series against Pakistan and we all are happy about it as well, but still the omission of the great Rahul Dravid from the team is a sad fact. But of course the other side is that this omission has given Rahul the great opportunity to fight back and slam a ton and a double ton in the domestic circuit. He again gave evidence on why he is called the Wall. He was not taken aback by his omission from the national team, instead he fought back with valor and proved a point or two.

There is no doubt this great cricketer, one of the greatest sons of the country, will bounce back and make his impact felt on the international arena once again, for he is a man of class, temperament and enormous abilities. It is only a right decision by the selectors to include Rahul Dravid in national team for the test series against Pakistan and I am sure that he will also figure in the test team against Australia down under. The bouncier tracks of Australia demands batsmen of right technique and right temperament which Rahul Dravid has in plenty. His overseas record is also something that is worth mentioning - he is one batsman whose overseas record in test matches is better than the record in the home matches.

Some times the BCCI selectors make such bizarre decisions that we feel that they are rather insane and inane than being sensible and prudent. Otherwise what reason on this earth do these people have to drop the great Rahul Dravid from the National side. Yet, now they have made the right decision by selecting him for the test matches against Pakistan and thus sense has prevailed again. Lets hope that Rahul Dravid can once again show his mettle as a great Test Batsman and there by prove his real worth to the selectors in the micro level and to the world in a macro level.

The Tale of Sacred Knight

Dreams of lanky Sacred Knight,
Were filled with shades of pallid hue,
With exalted mind and crippled thoughts,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

In his youth, often in despair,
He longed for an honest bosom,
But in old age, with astute self,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

With his spade he dug the graves,
For the deceased souls' long rest,
Amidst all unknown, silent corpses,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

Symbols of misery, he bore on his face,
Like a young widow's gray hairs,
With a smirk, though in despair,
Lived a man called Sacred Knight.

Pleasures of Bachelorhood

Being a person born and brought up in my own locality, I always get the privilege of getting invited to almost all marriages happening in and around my place. More often than not, I make it a point to attend them as well because my mother is someone who believes that it is very important to attend those functions as a sign of giving respect to those who had taken the effort of coming to our home and inviting us for the wedding. The most interesting thing that I frequently notice in a wedding ceremony is the way in which a very peculiar form of “marketing” happening in almost all these wedding functions and it is of course, done by the mothers of those “hope-to-be-bride-soon” girls.

I safely presume that my female friends and readers will forgive me on this, as this might seem offensive to some of them. In the wedding gatherings the mothers bring their daughters in the finest of attires and garbed in the most glittering ornaments and they also meticulously choose the right persons to introduce their daughters to (these right persons, incidentally are those young men or the parents of those young men presumably considered as the most eligible bachelors around). For some reasons yet to be discovered, these mothers find it absolutely difficult to accept me as one of those most eligible bachelors - undoubtedly to my delight and happiness, as I’ve no intentions of getting married in the near future - and this apparently has prompted me to have introspection and more importantly to delve deep into the reasons behind a young person’s constant desire to remain a bachelor.

One of the greatest pleasures of bachelorhood is that seemingly innocuous freedom of enjoying the beauty of a lady with the faculty of vision, unperturbed by the possessive attitude-laden close surveillance of one’s significant other. I strongly believe, by virtue of my common sense, that a married man, who is already under the fearsome control of the “close surveillance” of his wife, is the best person to approve the veracity of the above statement, though the probability of such an overt approval is minimal for obvious reasons. It is always said that one should get married to realize the real joy of remaining a bachelor, but by then, obviously one will cease to exist as a bachelor and hence any hope of enjoying the fruits of bachelorhood would thereafter sadly linger in his heart as an unfulfilled pipe dream.

The pleasure of being independent, being away from the bonds of family responsibilities could be yet another reason for a bachelor to ardently seek bachelorhood. The autonomy to do things as he wish, the liberty to travel where ever he desire, to tread through paths which are supposedly more perilous, though innovative, to spend time on things logically considered irrelevant by the majority, to utilize money on things of interest although alleged as an act of squandering by the external world and so on and so forth. This independence, treasured by most could be a very strong reason for a bachelor to impede a drive, from inside his consciousness and from the outside world, to jettison his tag of bachelorhood. We all cherish it so much so that we feel more inclined towards complying with this inner drive of remaining single and feel, more often than not, that there is more enterprise in staying on as a bachelor than being bonded in the demanding nuptial chains.

The ability to encounter and solve problems is one of the most exhilarating aspects of human life. Though often unconsciously, we all enjoy facing problems in our lives and the hard work - physical, mental and emotional - that comes together with facing and solving problems makes ordinary lives of people something worth living. Being a bachelor gives you the best chance to stride into paths that are believed to be rather problematic though challenging since there are no marital strings attached to your life that would pull you back into walking through ordinary paths often treaded by ordinary people accustomed to playing safe games in life. Youth is the period in one’s lifetime where there are larger chances that a person would take decisions that are bold and possibly decisions that are capable of changing the way he would live rest of his life and perchance capable of changing the way this whole world would live thereafter provided the extreme decision he would take is a revolutionary one. So it seems to be pretty normal that a young man would seek to remain as a bachelor during his gallant youthful days. This argument could be sometimes wrong for I have heard married people saying that you have to be more courageous, gutsy and intrepid after marriage hence married life provides more opportunities for you to face vivid problems and hence more opportunities of solving it through physical, mental and emotional exertion.

Bachelorhood is certainly the most colorful phase in one’s life - when you live your life with the least possible constraints, by enjoying the concern, care and affection of your parents, by savoring the moments of taking the most delicious food prepared by your mother (particularly so when the talent and interest in cooking is just a rarity among modern day girls and hence any expectation of the same from modern day wives is as absurd as absurd can be), and by benefiting from the freedom of taking extremely daring decisions without caring for even the slightest of concerns.

Having detailed the different reasons that are prompting me to stay on as a bachelor, which might hold good for some other bachelors too, I should confess that if I ever get a proposal from a girl similar to the girl at the ophthalmic center where my mother goes for treatment – that tall, fair girl with brown eyes who is smart, gifted, exceptionally graceful, intelligently loquacious and elegantly well dressed – I would perhaps be forced to rethink on my status quo as a bachelor. This is firmly because life at certain times needs a positive change, a change from the fearless life of a bachelor to a responsible life of a married man, for human life can hardly be considered complete unless one gets to encounter all facets of worldly life at some point of time or the other - my married friends would acknowledge, I reckon.

A Young Girl's Sacrifice Awakens a Novice Poet's Benevolence

Strange dire cries out of woes,
Made those modest minds to think,
A Poet in his extreme vogue days,
Feigns deaf to human cataclysms.

Perhaps of prejudice of some kind,
Or predicament of the puzzling mind,
A novice, young man of words,
Brings no pathos in his songs.

Dear young girl, my heart goes for you,
As so still and calm you stood at storm,
To maintain the past, high esteem,
Of those people of your own blood.

O' pious little soul, are you content ?
But broken dreams are broken dreams,
Days to come will bless you with bliss,
By the sacred Thee's own grace.

(Dedicated to my friend, who was forced by the circumstances to marry the guy who was supposed to marry her elder sister, as her sister eloped with her lover on the day before the wedding. I salute her resilience and courage and her love for her parents)

Dhoni’s Daredevils Reign Supreme

It was a befitting finale for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 when the traditional rivals India and Pakistan met at the New Wanderers, Johannesburg for a great cricket match of skill, temperament and nerves. No one could have asked for a better final than what we had witnessed on Monday. Two teams fought with courage, played with valor and above all showed great sport-man spirit throughout the match. It was a grand match with a rather bizarre but appropriate finish.

When the Indian captain won the toss and decided to bat on the batsman friendly pitch of the Wanderers all thought that it is a right decision, but the Pakistani bowlers had another intentions. India, though handicapped with the absence of Virender Sehwag due to an injury, was a formidable batting line up with the in-form Yuvraj Singh, flamboyant MS Dhoni, flashy Robin Uthappa and skillful Gautam Gambhir, not to mention the “new kid on the block” – Rohit Sharma. The induction of Yusuf Pathan in the opening slot was much of a surprise for all as everyone expected Dinesh Karthick to be the replacement of Sehwag. Yusuf Pathan was not able to make a big impression with the bat though he was able to play a big booming six and mighty four through square of the wicket in the first few overs. But it was the physically diminutive Gautam Gambhir who was at full flow. The southpaw timed his drives through extra-cover, cut the shot balls through the square, pulled away some half trackers and slogged a six through mid wicket in his wonderfully paced innings of 54 ball 75 which included 8 fours and 2 sixes. At the same time Yuvraj Singh and the “captain-courageous” MS Dhoni were not able to weave their magic in the game. The Pakistan bowlers kept the strangle hold on the Indian batsmen all through the innings and Umar Gul was particularly brilliant with his accurate bowling. It was because of the last minute attack by Rohit Sharma that India reached a respectable score of 157 for 5 in their allotted 20 overs.

At the outset, though the score 157 doesn’t look really appalling, it was a defendable total against Pakistan who, like Indians, are traditionally bad chasers under pressure. But to keep the batsmen under pressure India had to take wickets in regular intervals and they did exactly the same. RP Singh gave India a great start by taking the wicket of Mohd.Hafeez in the first over itself. But that over was followed by a rather undisciplined over by Sreesanth in which Imran Nazeer made 21 runs. Again RP Singh swung the pendulum back in India’s favor by getting rid of Kamran Akmal with a superbly bowled in swinger that beat the batsman both for swing and pace. But the real turning point of the match was the run out of Imran Nazeer by virtue of a throw from Robin Uthappa. From then on Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals. There was an excellent bowling spell by Irfan Pathan that was really helped by some unruly batting by the Pakistani batsmen. Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi all perished due to bad shot selection. But the audacious batting by Misbah ul-Haq gave some hope again for the Pakistan team and some worries to the Indian camp. His last minute blitzkrieg of shots was a real illustration of his guts, skill and determination. But his eagerness to finish off the match with a rather weird stroke resulted in his downfall together with the Pakistan’s aspirations of winning the championship. MS Dhoni’s boldness to give the last over to Joginder Sharma has to be appreciated and it is a real testimony to his daring captaincy. When Sreesanth pouched the skier from Misbah, it was all over and India had won the first Twenty20 championship.

This version of cricket is here to stay and one can’t deny but accept that this is a very enthralling form of cricket. Indians have a lot of positives to take from this tournament; may it be the gallant captaincy of MS Dhoni, the emergence of Yuvraj Singh as a key batsman, the great come back to Indian international cricket by Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Virendar Sehwag, the coming of age of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, the new find of Rohit Sharma or the manifestation of RP Singh as a strike bowler. The young Indian team, despite the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, has played wonderfully well and lifted the Twenty20 cup when they were scarcely under any reckoning when the tournament started. The Indian team really deserves this trophy as they had defeated the World Champions Australia, the host South Africa, the very formidable England and of course the arch rivals Pakistan. The onus is now on this Indian team to take this momentum forward and keep the good work going into the coming series against Australia and well beyond. But till that series it is time for all Indians to salute this impeccable Indian team and celebrate this great victory. If it was the Kapil’s Devils in 1983, it is the Dhoni’s daredevils in 2007.

Hip Hip Hurray!!!!!

Deep in the Thoughts

With waning hopes I did stand,
Beside the green children of the earth,
The night with desolation closely knit,
Reminded me of that melancholy song.

The same song, that once I heard,
In my dubiety, or in my despair,
Which bade of desires, ruthlessly rude,
And of dreams, so treacherously wild.

Mundane things no longer allure me,
Neither the deceptive will-o-the-wisp,
And scarcely does a lass of charm,
Drives me onto great fascination.

Yet, when I would be in my grave,
No man or woman would ever weep,
Spring would bring them bountiful pleasure,
And autumn, some annoying remorse.

I Can't Help But Praise

I wandered like never,
For a forbearing ear to hear,
The praise, I always bore in mind,
For a modest lass of charm,
And her affection, half revealed,
And scarcely, half hidden,
In my inner self, a new lustre,
As if my words were never,
So truthful, never so honest,
And now, when I have found,
An ear, dwelling in Middle East,
My vocabulary, seems too lean,
I am strained, to ask them -
Those grey-haired wise men,
To lend me their words,
To convey to him, the boon he got,
And then to him, I could express,
The praise, I always bore in mind.

(This poem was written in 2004 as a gift to one of my sisters on her betrothal. She is now living with her family in Muscat.)