Archive for November, 2003

Who are they writing for?

charukesi November 10th, 2003

Have just finished reading India Unbound. Great reading overall. Gurcharan Das speaks with the authoritative ease of someone who’s been there, seen that and done that. Unlike some others, Naipaul, for instance, who I believe have no clue what they are talking about. Having never been there, leave alone lived there.

If there is one thing that riles me with the book, it is this : why do all Indian authors (most, if not all) write for a Western audience ? Sometimes, it seems to me that Indian authors go out of their way to conform to Western expectations and stereotypes of India and Indians.

Das too falls into the trap and sets about explaining the simplest of concepts (intuitive to any Indian reader). His language at time is clearly oriented towards the Western reader. India is the largest market for blenders, he says. Sure, but who says “blenders” in India. I blinked for a second too.

This might be a very simplistic example, but my point is larger. Indian authors write with a focus on Western audiences. Why ?

Reminds me of Indian restaurants in the UK (why UK, some upper-end restaurants in India do this too) which have sub-titles for the most basic dishes :

Idli - soft fluffy pancakes made of rice. Sounds yummy, but what are pancakes please ?

Having said this, I repeat, the book is engrossing and makes for excellent reading. For a more detailed review, read me on mouthshut.

Blogosphere or Banana Republic ?

charukesi November 7th, 2003

Before I say more on this, a PJ. About a kid who came home from school and proudly announced, I learnt to spell banana in school, I just don’t know where to stop….

Ok, sorry.

I was saying that the Indian blogosphere is fast turning into a banana republic. What with banana eaters and banana haters, it’s just too funny….

Someone obviously has a lot of time on his / her hands…. and is filling that time with as much spite as is possible….. Makes it sound like some unknown hand is forcing him (why can’t I believe it is her?) to read the stuff people are writing…..

Please, give us a break…..

Shanks talks about revealing one’s identity through one’s blog and the possiblity of being judged thereof…. Very interesting thought….. I realize that by writing on an “open medium” like the internet, a blogger is open to judgment, but anonymous posts are just the pits…..

Their future looks bright

charukesi November 7th, 2003

Who says the paper route is a thing of the past ?

The girl who delivers the newspapers at our house every morning (here in Madras) is studying in college. I like chatting with her whenever I manage to catch her. She proudly tells me that she pays for her own fees and books. She is full of beans and makes me mornings more bearable !

Our flower girl who comes by late in the evenings is also studying. She is training to be a nurse. And her younger sister goes to school. Her mother is a maid somewhere in our building. And no, she does not have starry-eyed dreams of moving to the UK or the Middle East as a professional nurse.

Our maid at home has four children, two of whom go to school and one who is in a technical college studying electrical repairs. They will not go through what I have endured in my life, she says. And I can actually see the glow in her eyes when she talks about her children’s future.

These women are not figments of my imagination; I meet and interact with them everyday. And they make me feel so so so good…. So optimistic about the future of our country. Ohmygod, do I sound like a patronizing Shobha De talking about “interesting” women that she has met? I hope not, for meeting such people truly gives me a high.

I had written about a couple of girls I met in Madurai a while ago on work. Mind, these women do not speak good English, a few not at all. What strikes me most about these women is the confidence they have. In themselves. The unshakable faith that they have in education as the ultimate deliverance. From their present miserable lives.

Some food for thought : the proportion of “never enrolled” children (meaning children who have never been to school, as opposed to drop-outs) has been declining steadily : from 50% in 1986 (6-14 years in the most backward states) to 20% in 1996. More and more parents who cannot strictly afford this are willing to give education a chance.

But is their faith justified ? Is our education system (I am talking about elementary education here) living up to their expectations ? Ah, that is several blogs by themselves…..

Forty Years of Liberalization ?

charukesi November 6th, 2003

Am reading India Unbound by Gurcharan Das. More on the book soon. But there is one particular passage in the book which has me really shaken.

Das says that Lal Bahadur Shastri, India’s Prime Minister after Nehru was the first person to be aware of the pitfalls of the ‘controls’ regime set in motion by his well-intentioned(?) predecessor.

I quote from the book : In the complex, non- monolithic government that India had become, controls were causing delays, waste and enormous harm. He thought it was time to loosen up, and entrusted the task to L.K.Jha, his principal secretary. The Times of India ran a story in the front page in early December 1965 saying the government was contemplating liberalizing some of the less useful controls – it was the first time I came across the word “liberalization”.

Unfortunately, within four months Shastri died and with him all prospects of liberalization. Indira Gandhi was back on the scene, and with a vengeance, with Garibi Hatao. Then followed nationalization of banks and the rest as they say, is history.

Gurcharan Das also says that Rakesh Mohan, the head of the NCAER has conservatively estimated the economic cost of Indira Gandhi’s follies at 1.3 percent lower per capita GDP growth per year. In simpler terms, if those reforms were set into motion around that time, the per-capita GDP would have been atleast 80% higher in 1990 - $550 instead of $300.

Even putting aside depressing thoughts of what we have lost and thinking about what we could have gained is mind-boggling. India would have been an open, liberalized economy for close to forty years now. And if the prosperity of just more than a decade is anything to by….

Anyways, Das’ hope for the future and optimism is infectious….

Finally !

charukesi November 6th, 2003

Finally, some kind soul has signed on my guest map - thank you, Ramanand!

Having carefully cut-pasted the guest map, I open it every morning with the eagerness of a greedy child on Christmas morning (now, from where did such metaphors creep into my middle-class Hindu life ?!! Enid Blyton ?).

Only to find Dave and Barry from Bravenet saying - nice guest map ! As if I didn’t know….. you can imagine how depressing it is to see their cheerful faces and nothing else every morning……

I had almost convinced myself that the guest map was not working. And had mentally drafted a polite, well-worded note to Dave and Barry telling them where they got off…..

There had to be some explanation….. People are obviously reading my blog. But not signing on the guest map - despite my shameless, please mark my guest map.

Equally obviously, these people belong to another world…..

The future of Reader’s Digest

charukesi November 5th, 2003

Reader’s Digest has a new owner now : The India Today Group.

Says the India Today Group Chief Exec, Aroon Purie “I look forward to continuing the Digest’s editorial traditions and providing the winning Reader’s Digest team any support it may need in reaching a wider audience in India”

Sounds very ominous.

To me, RD has been the true general interest magazine, catering to no specific group – politically inclined, women of this generation and further, Page 3 enthusiasts and so on. Stories of survival, great jokes, life as it should be….. RD’s been the same ever since I can remember….

So what does this change mean : the beginning of the dumbing down of Reader’s Digest ?

The Queen’s English ?

charukesi November 4th, 2003

Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?
This verbal class distinction should now be quite antique…

There even are places where English completely disappears
In America, they haven’t used it for years!
Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?
Norwegians learn Norwegian; the Greeks are taught their Greek
In France, every Frenchman knows his language from A to ‘Zed’
The French never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.

But use proper English, you are regarded as a freak.
Oh, why can’t the English,
Why can’t the English learn to speak ?

I wonder, what would Prof. Higgins have to say to this?

The latest in the “going global” craze are English coaching centers, say The Week. There’s money, and careers, to be made by learning the Queen’s language-and people in small towns are joining this ‘English movement’

The report goes on to say that English is seen to be essential to get ahead in the IT world, or simply to show that you have ‘arrived’ in life…..

If this is true, then how has Europe survived for so long ? and still does ?

How did George Bush get elected as the leader (ok, Prez, not leader ) of the largest English speaking nation of the world ? I know they speak American and not English, but I am not splitting hairs here, you know what I mean. George Bush, of, “Is our children learning” and many other Bushisms fame…..

Tony Blair…. We won’t even talk about. I have often been appalled by the English I’ve heard in England. Nowhere else is the Queen’s language murdered as in her own country…..

I am genuinely curious – does being able to speak good English truly give one a competitive edge in the world today?

Trivia for the day

charukesi November 3rd, 2003

Did you know :

Trivia means three roads in Latin.

Wherever three roads met, the Romans put up notice boards with the news on.

What about job satisfaction?

charukesi November 1st, 2003

A close friend of my parents retired from work yesterday, after twenty-eight years in the Reserve Bank of India. When she came home to visit my parents, she was feeling quite senti. It is like a daughter leaving her home after marriage….

My parents retied from the same bank a few years ago. When they left, between them, they had worked for an incredible seventy three years in the bank. GASP !

My father joined the bank soon after his post graduation studies, steadily rising within the organization, sometimes refusing promotions too for the sake of stability. My mother started work at the age of eighteen, completing her graduation as she went along. She wanted to stop working when she got married. That didn’t happen. Post marriage, she says there are atleast four instances when she wanted to leave her job and stay at home…. Needless to say, that did not happen either.

My parents, typically my mother, did not think of their job as a career. It was the means to a steady income at the end of the month, essential to raise the family. Most women of her generation went to work out of necessity; I doubt if she ever thought about her ‘self-esteem’ or ‘independence’.

These were long before terms such as ‘job satisfaction’ became the vogue. I don’t imagine my parents went through mid-life or quarter life or any other such crisis. If they did, then I didn’t know about it….. I expect they were not aware that it is possible to go through such crisis in one’s life….. Thinking back, I realize they had larger worries and preoccupations…. They just went through life, doing what was expected out of them….

I came across this article where a sixty-year old father sympathizes with his son’s generation for facing all kinds of problems that his own peers never had to. I was touched…..

When I joined work, six years ago, I was already planning for my retirement. At the age of thirty! As it happened, I stopped working full-time (for various personal reasons) long before thirty…. I was not satisfied with my job….. I am now seeking meaning in my work…. I have still not found it…..

No wonder my parents cannot understand what I am griping about….

Hats off to them !

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