Plugging loopholes of an argument

The Op-Ed page of ‘The Hindu’ carried out an article of the IT minister, Kapil Sibal, which intended in giving a reply to the recent remark of Narendra Modi on the inadequate spending of UPA government in the education sector. In this, the minister defends UPA with the comparison of public expenditures on education during NDA and his government.

Recently, in a gathering at a Pune University, Narendra Modi passed a remark on the UPA government’s expenditure of mere 4% of GDP compared to China’s 20% of GDP on this sector. The conjecture of data from Government World Reports (2013) proclaims the Chinese government expenditure was $1.25 trillion in the previous five years. This clears the air; china has spent only 4% of GDP on education. This extrapolation of data forms a basis of the minister’s argument.

He accuses the NDA government’s expenditure of 2.4% of GDP whereas the UPA government spent staggering 4.2% of country’s GDP. Apparently, the figures show a hike in spending during the UPA regime. But to be noted is the country recorded its unprecedented GDP growth of 8.5% in the last decade only. The onset of real economic boom brought by IT was set after 2004 in the country, which means under the UPA government.

Ironically, the public expenditure on education reveals a different set of data. The government recorded its highest spending in the year 1999 with 12.72% and its least in the year 2009 with 9.98% of total government expenditure, according to official figures.

Thus, these figures support no successive government had valued the importance of education. Apart from RTE, the UPA government hasn’t roll out its sleeves in the sector. What believed to be a game changer, mid-day meals, is fraught with corruption and inefficiency driving students away from the school. Besides, the country concentrated very little on the pre-primary schools where the drop out ratio from schools scales higher as no legislation take cares of it.

The education sector is disfigured beyond recognition and being hopeless to millions of young minds. The persistent neglect of government, uncontrolled power exercise of private parties not bode well with the future of the country.

Apparently, the minister started his article with a quote, "Great leaders, it is said, are dealers in hope". This saying makes us to admit that our country, unfortunately, never stumbled across a great leader, so far.

Premonition of Alfred Hitchcock

Way back in 1955, the ‘Alfred Hitchcock presents’ sitcom aired an episode on the increase in violence and deaths in the city directly connected to the increase in earth temperature. The people’s mind in the hot climate is temperamental waiting for stoke to hound other person. This formed the crux of the episode which aired under the title ‘Shopping for death’ in the FX crime channel.

In some sort of a weird coincidence, recently, a study found the rise in temperature level of earth can trigger sporadic violence and conflicts among people. This could be significantly visible in the tropical country due to its climatic conditions. The other startling revelations are the rise of 2 degree Celsius of earth temperature by 2050, the increase in ethnic violence and clashes among people.

The study appears to be a rehash of the episode, or else, may be this study is being churned for time and again to remind the adversity on its way of people’s life.  It’s visible the temperature and climatic conditions of our place, region and the country showing variable changes.

Likewise, we could see the unhappiness growing among people globally and ostensibly visible in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and the African countries as they are in the middle of the ensuing civil wars. When the women of Turkey instructed to refrain from modern clothes irked the Muslim country which resulted in an uproar. The Syrians fight against decade-long dictatorship after following suit of Egyptians.

The people of Alaska regret following American lifestyle after the inhabited place looks no longer habitual for sustenance. The increased sea level submerged the land in the island and believed to disappear from the face of earth in another few years.

Back at home, the growing division among the states, people on the lines of castes, religion and money are starkly visible. The long rule of mismanagement of government gets highlighted in recent years, with the people demanding out rightly for the safety and security of fellow citizens.

The masses wield arms to stall the commissioning of nuclear power plant, to vent out anger on a community after an inter-caste marriage of adults, fighting for statehood, demanding the repeal of draconian laws and institution- sedition and AFSPA. The ever growing unsatisfied heaps spew fury and venom on the society by harming innocents.

Apart from this, another study claims the draining of resources forms a bone of contention for the future conflicts. When things look chaotic and unsatisfied, there are few people who work to combat the crisis in the future.

The researchers around the globe engaged in finding an alternative to the mainstream. A crew involved in developing a water-free public toilet for future as the source of water depleting at a faster rate compared with its repletion. Germans replaced their Volkswagen with electric cycles and are ready to close down nuclear power plants by 2025. Along with them there are large numbers of environmentalists around globe who are striving to bring back the earth from the verge of being inhabitable place.

All these events don’t boil down to the usual question on preponderance of good over evil, but how we are going to save ourselves before resorting to the last hope, abdication of earth. 

God in the eyes of man

The exquisitely decorated Lord Ganesha sculptures on the side walls of the mukkula Vinayagar temple in Pondicherry brings out a joy and exuberance in life instantly. The adorable god, Ganesh, is sculpted as he is been worshipped in different countries across the world. The depiction doesn’t reveal the god’s identity but helps in identifying a man’s perception conjured in his visual image.

In India, he is mostly seen as a humble and joyful god, who is happy to rest under a peepal tree as well as in the corner of streets, looks distinct in each sculpture. The Japanese made the trunk of the god in sculpture straight but very short who sits merrily with his pot belly, and doesn’t seems complaining about his short trunk on the walls. The Cambodian Ganesha brings surprise when he shows off his flat stomach and a thin tusk in the figurine. I found him conscious in the carving, may be, because I was taken aback with his healthy and fit stature.

The Bangladeshi Ganesha gives darshan with his four hands and a sword rested on his shoulder which usually spotted in the hands of goddess Durga. I presume he is looked upon as a god with the combination of brain and braveness, holds lots of similarities to goddess Durga in his carvings.

The Chinese Ganesha is unique with his trunk carefully folded towards its right side with a sharp edge. It resembles mandarin alphabet’s fine strokes that drawn with precision. The Ganesha in Sri Lanka looks similar to our Indian sculptures but the measurement varies. He is shown with broad shoulders looking little big to his size that we are accustomed to and also looks short in the carving.

Apart from the depictions of other countries, our sculptors chiseled few things from their figments of imagination. In a figurine, he thrills us with six hands and in the other he is adorned with jewels. The sculpture of Bal Ganesha poses the famous posture of Lord Natraja where Ganesha manages his whole body weight with one leg and the other leg is suspended in mid-air. Another distinct one, infant Ganesha rest on the laps of his father, god Shiva, and in the adjacent sculpture he is in the hands of his mother, goddess Parvathy.

An interesting sculpture of Ganesha sitting atop his vehicle, rat, and both of them look away furiously. In the other, he has taken the avatar of mayur (Peacock) where he is adorned with peacock feathers and, needless to say, makes a pretty picture.

The human’s way of perceiving things reflected in these sculptures and has more to do than mere appreciation of an art. Now, I am reminded by the Nobel peace prize winner, Wangari Mathai, - she said Jesus Christ, worshipped by her and her clan, is black. Indeed. 

Story of the nature overpowering mankind

   The importance of co-existence among nature and humankind has got its fittest reply with the country handling a natural disaster in Uttarkhand. The flashfloods in the Uttarkhand brought the region to its primitive existence as water gushes out from its repositories to land and the roads and bridges wiped from the face of earth; nailed the humankind for curtailing its existence by being pervasive now.

The official figures reveal about 822 died in the flashfloods till now and thousands left stranded in the disaster. More than 40 choppers are ferried in the inclement weather to distribute essentials and in airlifting the stranded people. The choppers ferry ghee and woods to carry on with the mass cremation, the locals are alerted to abstain using water in the hills and outbreak of deadly diseases is on high alert. Further, the chaos looms larger with the kith and kin at a frantic pace in search of the missed ones heightens the distress situation in the hills.

Within 24 hours of the onset of flashfloods, center declared it as a national disaster and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) acted on a full swing to mitigate the crisis. The Uttarkhand Chief Minister, Vijay Bhagugan, disheartened, said not expected floods during this monsoon season. The funds poured in from all the corners and the state governments ensured that pilgrims belonging to their state airlifted safely amidst the relentless operation.

As the events unfold, the environmentalists are fraught with the damage done to ecologically sensitive areas. The watershed of Bhargyarati and Mandakini Rivers comes under ecologically reserved areas that bar any developmental activities in the region. Further, in 2005, the Ministry of environment notified the state government of Uttarkhand to abstain from the activities that bring hazards to ecology but the Uttarkhand government defended those activities on the pretext of bringing development to the state.

In the following years, the state invested heavily on the tourism by laying new roads and widening the existing ones. The tourist buses crossed the mark of a lakh in 2010 and records the time gap of seven minutes between two vehicles plying in the hills. Subsequently, plying of heavy vehicles to ferry the growing tourists’ population weakened the mountains which triggered the landslide and created slits during the flashfloods. The construction companies and contractors drilled the mountains haphazardly without using advanced technologies and precautionary measures to minimize the ecological hazards. Subsequently, this man made construction changed the course of the rivers and thus disturbing its natural flow.

The generation of hydropower energy in Bargavati River tends to be lucrative to the state with high tariff rates but the series of bumper on the River to produce energy shrunk the water source.  Some parts of the river are parched and even during lean period the sharing of water is impossible. According to the claims the existing projects already did 80% damage to the river. 

The heavy drilling into the mountains for the construction of dams, roads, and bridges haphazardly without using sophisticated technology severed the mountains. The private contractors while building hotels and resorts drilled randomly without a prior knowledge laid many contractors bankrupt.

Apart from it, abode of Shiva, is a seismic zone, prone to landslides and earthquake. Back in 2002, the state experienced a massive earthquake jolted people from its normal life. Even during this rescue operation the hills recorded a quake of 3.5 Richter scale. The ecologists call the young Himalayan hills as ecologically fragile zones and claims the government has carried out the development at the cost of the environment.

The construction of buildings not adhering to the types belonging to seismic zones paid heavily during the floods. The environmentalist endorse any planned construction using technology withstands floods and earthquake. The flouting of rules and unregulated constructions wreaked havoc in the hills during the flashfloods are the strong claims of environmentalists.

Even after witnessing havoc, the Chief Minister, Vijay Bhagugan, shrugs these reasons as childish leaving ecologists in despair. As rescue operations drawing to a close and news stories on flashfloods moved to inside pages raises doubts on the momentum that can be seized for a better future of nature and humankind.

Only time will tell- Perfect tick to its sequel

The famous line of Old Jack Tart-“ not cut from the same cloth”- , perhaps, describes best Hugo Barrington in the novel but it is more suitable in describing this Jeffrey Archer’s ambitious work of Clifton chronicles first part,  ‘Only time will tell’. It is clearly a step above from his other works and reminds he is the master of storyteller with his impeccable narrative that shimmers as silver lining of clouds.

The author drops a tip in the beginning where a woman, Maisie Clifton, gives away herself to a stranger, Hugo Barrington, before her marriage can be a probable contention in the following pages of the novel. It seems right in a half way through the novel, after it spell a cast on Maisie life. Maisie rises her only son, Harry Clifton, after losing her husband in the hull of a dock and battles against Hugo who nurses the fear of Harry inheriting his title and property,thus preventing his son, Giles, who born out of wedlock.

The fate takes little Harry to Old jack Tar who enlightens him with his worldly knowledge that helps him in clearing a choral scholarship to a scholar school and in there he befriends Giles. The story is narrated through the eyes of Harry Clifton till he finishes his high school and after it the story narrated through fellow characters who give dimensions to loosen strings that finally unravels the mystery of Harry’s biological father.

The essence of drama and thrill of finding the other side of coin from each character’s narration only sets a pace to the novel. For instance, the Old Jack’s contribution in Harry’s life little known until he reveals his past life as captain and his acquaintance with Harry’s mother, the headmaster, and Hugo’s father unravels the mystery in Harry’s father's death.

Maisie mother asks every time when her daughter dates a guy-‘what’s his game?’ These exact words we would like to think on the onset of every character’s narration. The transition to each character’s narration is smooth and an easy glide. They take Harry forward from high school to Oxford for his graduation. Example, the narration of Emma, Harry’s lover and the daughter of Hugo, slide along from their first meet to their wedding day, indeed, make a tireless reading.

After knowing reason of his father’s death and finding the biological father, Hugo, on his wedding day can make it believe that Clifton chronicles comes to an end. But it shatters, for good, in the last page when we find out the reason for Harry stranded in New York soon after his naval ship torpedoed by enemies during the outbreak of World War II is a clever twist which lays a cornerstone for the sequel as well as to make us relentlessly wait.

Ethir neechal-Review

       The title of the movie Ethir neechal(Sailing against the odds) is the characteristic that expected among the audience to sit through this excruciatingly painful two and half hour movie. The movie begins with Siva’s ordeal for bearing the name Kunjitha Patham after his family deity. The first ten minutes director convinces us the real meaning of the name through an assortment of characters that breaks the monotony of hearing the same dialogue through different deliveries. The veracity of the situation is highlighted when Siva’s first love break up happens due to his not-so-good-to-hear name. 

After the change of name to Harish, the hero meets the typical kind-hearted Tamil heroine, Priya Anand who is ambitious in life donning several hats like nursery teacher, LIC agent, and also an aspiring MA student. She falls in love with the hero when he reaches her to the examination center in a politically volatile day.

In a friend marriage, the old characters that broke the monotony in the beginning of the movie meet accidentally in a marriage hall and reveal the not-so-good-to-hear name to Priya. The new twist in the movie arrives when priya confides the aimless Siva is the reason for her disheartenment and not the name. This instigates the hero to enroll for a world famous marathon event in the city. The random cut to a soup song, Dhanush and Nayanthara dancing in a bar, to bring solace to the twice-heartbroken hero is the heights of testing the patience.  Thus, the first half ends with this new turn encapsulating a total of four songs-two duets and two soup songs, and the random cuts to scenes without any sequence.

When the audience wonders what could be waiting in the second-half of the movie, the director leaves everyone speechless with the furling of master twist in the story. The ambitious Siva decides to join a coach for the training but ends up getting trained under his student, Nandita. The mysterious Nandita takes the hero through the innovative methods of training and finally arrive in Chennai to complete the final lapse of training. The sudden inquisitiveness of the hero on the mystery surrounding Nandita takes us through a very long and boring flashback.

In the flashback, the doting Nandita’s father sacrifices his life and property to live his daughters’ dream of winning gold medal in Asian games. As expected, an evil- thought coach plays a spoil sport after questioning the gender of Nandita. Subsequently, this issue disqualifies Nandita from participating in the Asian games and also leads to the death of her father.

The flashback changes hero’s mind and decides to run for Nandita instead of Priya. This noble cause steers hero to the finish line in a record time by pushing back the famous international athlete, like Usain Bolt in stature, and an Indian athlete trained by the evil-thought coach. The winning speech of the hero after the marathon race that confesses his not-so-good-to-hear name in the public and solving the controversial (Pinki) gender issue through a two minute media advocacy is the real highlight in the movie.

Beware of the series of illogical twist and turns that confound us throughout the film.

The Key word 'Revolution'

In the last year, the widely discussed topic and read by the people was the revolution movement that happened in the several parts of the Middle East. Though Egypt and India can have their differences demographically, economically, and even culturally, but they hold a commonality of facing the rebellion movements at the same time. Egypt succeeded in the movement by triggering a change in political scenario. Unfortunately, the movement in India created ripples in the sea and evoked benign waves.
The trigger for the movement in both the countries were same, the rampant corruption. The corruption held the diverse angry masses together in the uproar. If the cause is same, and the effect created by it is also same. Then, why do we have different results/conclusion for this logical question. The answer is very simple.  The angry mass in Egypt was the frustrated unemployed youths. The deprivation for long years under a regime pushed them to the Tahrir square. The situation was pervasive and this pulled in the participation of people from different walks of life. They really needed a change and they were deliberate to attain it.
In Contrast to it, the Indian masses in the movement were unsure of the reason and the solution. They pushed for the Lokpal bill but beyond the name not a majority of people had read the proposal that was submitted to the government. In Egypt, Mubarak clan was the beneficiary of their regime. The looted money was stashed in their pockets safely. No middlemen and competitors. India carried a different portfolio for it. To find a corrupted people in India is an easy task. It’s more or less finding a blond in Europe. The people participated in the uproar were corrupted or encouraged corruption in one or the other way.
Luckily, during the uproar I happened to study in Delhi. The mass went for march from Jantar Mantar (Anna Hazare observed his fast in this place) to India gate. I still remember an optimistic well off father handed over a lighted candle to his school going teenage boys. It is encouraging to see that youngsters come to the fore in the movement. Irony, even the father would have encouraged the corruption directly or indirectly. We spill extra money to get our kids enrolled in reputed colleges and schools. We corrupted our cops when we drove our bike without the license. The municipal worker will collect your house garbage only when you grease his palm. It’s simple in India, the rich can survive and the poor has to struggle.</p>
<p>The country has a wide range of the pirated collections of movies to software and to the best-selling books. You name it, we get it for you. The movement pointed only the politicians and the government officials as corrupt. It conveniently neglected the billions by counting the thousands. Anna Hazare can hold numerous fast and the people will like to see it too. May be in a short span the people can lose their interest in it. Because no one frisked them before entering the Jantar Mantar whether they are corrupt or stopped being corrupt. Unless the masses know what we are here for, the movement will fizzle out every single time. Now, its time for the rebel inside us to wake up to make a real serious uproar for the change. As we know, the change is the need of the hour.</p>
<p>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_V6zMwaL04&#038;w=420&#038;h=315]</p>