Women empowerment?

Undoubtedly, most of you will find the topic too repetitive and boring. The reason is simple: any step taken by any political party has the aim of women empowerment, even though it does not in reality lead to the same. All debates and discussion has this key idea of women empowerment. The female panelists can be found to be frequently using the phase "this is against women empowerment". Most of the female celebrities in Bollywood involve in parties on trivial occasions and tag them as "Mah friend birthday #get_together #WOMEN_EMPOWERMENT".

Well, I do not have any issue with the use of the term. Infact, it is a good sign that people are discussing on such matters. The more people discusses such matters, the better it is for the society to realise the concerns faced by women. India, on this front as well, is doing fairly good as can be seen from the growing discourse on this topic in daily course of life, particularly on the high decibel media. If everything is fine, then why am I writing this article? I do not want to add another layer to the already noisy discussion, but I want to raise a different point related to the same.

The point is: do we really understand the meaning of the highly celebrated term "women empowerment"? Does it include male bashing in it? Or does it include instagramming nude photos? Or, to add, does it also cover shouting at a male colleague for no reason just to show that women have indeed achieved empowerment? Why am I making these points is simply because I find the so-called empowered women as greatly using social media to highlight such activities and call them as consequence of empowerment. For instance, a well-known female bollywood actress recently instagrammed her nude photos terming it as celebration of feminity and women empowerment.

I have no issue with anyone using the social media for making people aware of their lifestyles. It may include partying on beach with their celebrated friends, highlighting their disputes with their male collegues or even for that matter, tweeting their nude pictures. But, I am unable to digest when they call these events as a sign of empowerment. I think such ideas gives a wrong and distorted image of the idea of empowerment.

Having discussed all these, it is time to understand the meaning of empowerment and why the above instances are not empowerment in true sense of the term. Empowerment, in simple terms, can mean that women are increasingly able to take decisions for themselves. They are no more guided by the dictates of their male authorities at home to decide for themselves and their own future, future of their children, their sexuality and so on. They can walk, and walk with all authority at their command, on equal terms with their male colleagues in offices and public discourse.

In this context, one can see the examples of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi, the ICICI bank chief Ms. Chanda Kochha, Biocon Chief Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw among others. They have created a separate niche for themselves and have shown the world the meaning of empowerment with their deeds. They did what they wanted in life and never allowed the societal barriers to come their way.

The point that I am focussing on through these examples is that these empowered women have worked with their colleagues as equals. They became the chief of their respective institutions but have not indulged in criticising their male conterparts to prove their point. Neither, they take to social media websites to highlight their girlish party to drive their point of empowerment. This is because, if such activities are empowerment, in that case only a handful of the women in India are empowered. And sadly... the meaning of empowerment gets reduced to two things: (1) access to social media website, (2) a photographer to click photos. Then what could be the name given to such activities? Well, at best, it could be called a form of growing feminism, which is technically different from the modes of empowerment.

Empowerment, to conclude, means that both  male and female counterparts are equal in all spheres. No gender is superior to the other. There is no point in showing the other in bad light. For this, India needs a co-operative and collaborative approach and not a conflict approach. This can come when we, all individuals, respect the other person in family, at office and in public life. It certainly does not include male bashing by the other group or female bashing by the traditionally dominant group in the society. Because neither of the approach will lead us to an equal society.

Test Cricket and its future

The first Test match was played in 1877 in Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), nearly a hundred years senior to the One-Day Internationals (ODIs). The test cricket, over the years, has faced many ups and downs. Nevertheless, it has survived till present times. However, of-late there has been growing concern over the future of test cricket in light of the dwindling viewers in test matches.

The reasons for the above are not very difficult to decipher. These include the growing interest in the ODIs and the recent surge of T20 internationals, especially the Indian Premier League (IPL), Big Bash League (BBL) and so on. The growth of limited overs cricket has resulted in the mismatch of rewards. While, on one hand, such high-intensity T20 matches provides greater rewards to the T20 specialists, the test cricket, on the other hand, is surviving mainly because of its inherent strength. This is because test cricket is indeed a real "test" of skills, techniques, patience which are enjoyed by the classical batsmen and bowlers of modern times.

But, as experts believe, the future of test cricket can be at stake if it remains dependent solely on the beauty of the game and do not take some immediate actions either in the form of increasing the remuneration or finding other ways out.

Well, optimism is still prevailing around in view of the steps contemplated by the the International Cricket Council (ICC), the international governing body of cricket and also some of the national boards. For instance, a well-thought out strategy has been to conduct a World Test Championship. However, the clouds of doubts are still hovering over this decision and any concrete plan is yet to be made. The sooner the decision is made, the better it will be for the test cricket. The reason is that this is a good step as the recognised test teams will make an effort to be in the top four (the top four test teams vis-a-vis a certain cut-off date will play the championship). This is expected to promote test cricket and may also enhance viewership.

The ICC, with a similar aim, had also thought of the Two-Tier system in test cricket. Barring aside the technical details, this system would have helped in grouping of teams in two categories, who would play among themselves certain number of test matches. However, this has not found support from Indian, Bangladesh and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board because the system would not allow the low ranked teams to play with the high ranked teams. This, according to Bangladesh Cricket Board, would have defeated the purpose of improving the low-ranked teams performance in test cricket.

This system has been worked upon and a new idea has been doing rounds whereby the winner of the first group would play with the winner of the other group. This is an improvement and is expected to dilute the loopholes in the two-tier system. But, this view is yet to see the light of the day.

In this direction, the BCCI has also contributed by increasing the remuneration of Indian players per match to 15 lakhs. This will, hopefully, retain the interests of players in test cricket, especially among the young generations. However, this has not yet become a norm among other cricket boards might be because of lack of financial strength. But, sooner or later, this is a necessary evil for test cricket.

At the same time, as pointed out by Rahul Dravid, former cricketer, scheduling of test matches should also be given more priority i.e more test matches be scheduled in a year. At present, the presence of ODIs and T20s in the scheduled list of matches have increased and is one of the reasons of declining interest both among the viewers and the players vis-a-vis test cricket.

Well, in my opinion, whatever steps are taken, one important aspect to keep in mind is that test cricket should be competitive enough to generate interest. This is because viewers should feel the same heat and excitement as are witnessed in T20s and ODIs. The question, however, is- how to do this?

Keeping in mind the recent test matches, including the ongoing India-Australia test series, I think a fair competition between bat and ball has a greater probability to generate the required thrill. This also has a greater chance of providing a result, an important indicator to make test matches more popular and interesting.

In addition to this, more test matches can be conducted under the floodlights to provide the audience a better feel of the game as it is there in the limited overs game. Other innovative measures such as usage of the pink ball can be adopted in some of the matches. These small changes might help in reducing the monotony that is generally associated with the test cricket.

मेरे गुरु

हे गुरु, आपको मेरा प्रणाम
मेरे नमन को स्वीकारें !
मुझे अपना शिष्य मानकर
मुझपर अपनी कृपा बरसायें !!

आपके ज्ञान ज्योति के बिना 

मैं इस जीवन के कोलाहल को 

कैसे समझूँ ?

आपके मार्ग दर्शन के बिना 

मैं इस दुनिया के सच को 

कैसे मान लूँ ?

आपके जीने की राह
मेरी राह बन चुकी है !
आपके शब्द की प्रवाह
मेरे लिए प्रकाश बन चुकी है !!

  मैं जानता हूँ की मैं अर्जुन नहीं, 

मैं एकलव्य भी नहीं !

पर हे गुरु,

आप ही हो मेरे कृष्ण 

आप ही मेरे द्रोण !!

मैं भीष्म सा प्रतिज्ञाबद्ध तो नहीं
और नाही मैं कर्ण सा दानवीर !
पर मेरी अहँकार और अज्ञानता
के विरुद्ध,
आप ही हो मेरे परशुराम !!

अंत में मैं और क्या कहूँ 

सिवाय इसके, की हे गुरु !

इस असहाय स्थिति मैं 

आप ही हो मेरे मार्गदर्शक !!

P.S: Please read this extremely slowly and not like an article (in one go). Thank You.  

मेरी कविता

जब तक वो थे
हम उनको समझे नहीं !
जब वो न रहें
हम आंसू बहाते रह गए !!

मालूम न था
प्यार की क्या कीमत है !
उनके प्यार को हमेशा
हम झुटलाते ही रह गए !!

सोचता हूँ मन में
की मैंने ऐसा क्यों किया !
उनके प्यार की परछाई में
हम खिलखिलाते ही रह गए !!

प्यार तो हम
दोनों ही करते थे !
मगर प्यार का इज़हार
सिर्फ वही करते रह गए !!

उनके जाने के बाद
लगता है सब कुछ टूट सा गया हो !
अपने प्यार की मिसाल
हम बतलाते ही रह गए !!

Caste anhilition: An ongoing battle

I know I am entering into a difficult zone. This is because the given topic is so complex and diverse that a non-scholar like me may not succeed in showing the correct perspective on it. It is because of this limitation that I would like to clarify at the start itself that this article is meant for a lay person who sees and feels the discourse of caste system in the society.

There are innumerable theories and diverse perspectives on the caste system as has been present in India since historical times. Some school of thought believe it to functional for the society while others see it as a tyranny of the so-called higher caste people. Whatever be the reality, it is true to some extent that it is not really seen in a very positive light by the new educated generation. Why is this so? When the accepted norm is that individuals be recognized on the basis of merits, caste system only acts as a stumbling block. 

It cannot be denied that there are instances when two people of equal merit are given unequal treatment based on their caste. Neither the fact that institutions of higher learning have vacant posts reserved for the Dalits or other lower caste candidates is easily comprehensible. 

Let us go back to the history for a moment. Scholars say the "jati" system present during the ancient periods were functioning effectively. The actual phenomena was that every individual is born as a Shudra. After he/she attains knowledge and takes up any particular work that one is characterized as Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra (i.e according to the Varna System). But, this phenomena became disfunctional for the society when the Varna system has been linked with the birth of an individual. In other words, by virtue of being born in a Brahmin family, one becomes entitled to learn the Vedas. While, if one takes birth in a Shudra family, he/she has to serve all the three other varnas. 

Different historians give different dates for the institutionalisation of this system. More than the date, it is important to know that this system got further strengthened during the British Period. British's policy of conducting Census every ten years, reservation for the Dalits etc created some sense of alienation among these groups. The issue of reservation, which was basically the brainchild of Dr. B R Ambedkar, still continues. Whether it has benefitted the respective groups or not is a matter of debate for which I am not qualified enough to comment upon. 

Here comes a very important development in Indian History. When Dr. B R Ambedkar was in favour of anhilition of caste, what made Gandhiji to oppose this view? As far as my knowledge goes, Gandhiji believed that caste system as such was not problematic. It only needs to be reformed by resolving the issue of untouchability.  Sometimes I wonder had it been the same situation as it is at present when the two tall leaders of the nation worked for total anhilition of the caste system? 

While Gandhiji was not incorrect in assuming that the ideal form of caste system (i.e caste system sans the untouchability) could be continued because of it's assumed advantage. However, the sad part is that idealism cannot be guaranteed except under a controlled environment. Human beings and their thoughts cannot be controlled unlike the natural matter. 

While I gloss over the happenings of the 21st century, I still think what Gandhiji would have thought about the caste system as it is working now. No doubt he would have been certainly very happy to see that the issue of untouchability has been made illegal and given a constitutional recognition. However, if one looks carefully through the society, this issue keeps emerging one time or the other. By recognizing this reality, would Gandhiji still work for removing the untouchability or fast unto death for removing the idea of caste system altogether? I definitely need a well read scholar to answer this. 

Applying this in the present context, when I see that various groups voice their desire to be included at a particular position in the caste hierarchy, I think what kind of a situation are we creating for ourselves. In one part of the country, when I find that politics is being played over the death of a Dalit student, I wonder where we are heading towards. On one hand, we are playing a very significant role in International arena by being a knowledge economy. The other moment we find that the human resources are being wasted in no significant issues. 

Can there exist a system which may do some good to the society, but, prima facie creates an obstacle in realising the full potential of a nation by keeping us involved in unnecessary matters? I would have definitely asked this question to Gandhiji had he been alivE.

Edit: One of my friends suggested that this article is not leading to any particular viewpoint. I am aware of this. In this article, my aim was limited to make people think whether this system should be continued or not? I do not have a proper answer for this. Hence, I expected that some of you would write certain arguements regarding this. Thank you all for reading this. 

Indian Society

         This article in not a critical analysis of the entire Indian society. Rather, I have a limited aim of portraying one of its features. My view may not be entirely correct given the huge diversity of our society. But, this is what I have experienced particularly in my own village and within my community.
         In our society, what is the purpose of education? Is it to lead a good social life by adopting good values? Or to lead a good life in materialistic sense? Of-course, both these form a part of our education.
         However, there is one more perspective found in low income groups. We educate our children to lead a "safe life" by getting a job with the available skill.
         Someone, the other day told me that in foreign society (I have no proof of this however), a child is given free hand to decide what he wants to do with his life. However, there are ample number of cases in my knowledge where our society has made one's life difficult if he/she chooses to do something which is not easily achievable.
        One of the examples that comes to my mind like a flash is of a Uttar Pradesh student Govind Jaiswal. His father was a rickshaw puller. With limited education, it was expected out of him that he takes up something in his life which pulls his father out of the clutches of poverty. But, against the tide and due to some kind of social discrimination, he decided to go for an unpredictable career option- IAS.
       It so happened that once his father fell ill. Govind could not visit him on time due to the load of preparation. As expected, the neighbourhood people got opportunity to speak up their mind-  "Baap yahan mar raha hai, beta Delhi mein aish kar raha hai" (the father is suffering here and the son is enjoying there in Delhi).
       The only way out of this situation for Govind Jaiswal in this situation could have been to take up any job that came in his way. However, Govind survived the scare. But, everyone is not Govind.
      What is the consequence?  Many deserving students who are born to do excellent in his/her life become the victim of this society and finds a safe way in life (excellent here does not mean only by being an IAS, but in any other field of his/her interest).
     When I look at the "Breaking News" to see that an Indian has become the CEO of Google, I do not know whether to be happy or not. This is because I am not sure if they could have recognised their abilities had they been here. Not only this, recently, I came to know that Silicon Valley has so many Indian entrepreneurs who are doing exceedingly well. Sometimes, I wonder if they could have made big in their life had they been cruising with their innovative ideas in India. I would not be entirely wrong if I say that it is the societal attitudes and values which promote such talents and gives them the opportunity to rise. (Well, I know in this example of entrepreneurship, it is not only society but the market regulations, tax structure_ but this is not the aim of this article).
     Let me explain this with an example: Once me and one of my friends were discussing something with a professor regarding what to do in life. "What is your goal Mr. X" asked the professor to my friend. He replied "I want to find a job at this time to secure my career". My professor replied "I heard that students of this institute are job providers and you are so eager to get a job. It is surprising to me". Even though it was not at all surprising to me. And I know with full certainty that my friend was so brilliant that he could have done something extraordinary in life. But, he also chose the "safe side" of life. (I know opting for job is not a bad thing at all. But, there is a reason why I have taken this example. My friend in question was working on a novel idea. But, as he got the placement offer, he dropped his start-up idea and played safely. His reason was: my parents are expecting me to take up job).
    I think it is because of these reasons that Indian students prefer to go abroad to pursue their career. One of my friends in my institute once said to me "if given a chance, most students from our institute would like to go abroad". I do not know the amount of truth in this statement, But, I do sometimes think what made him say this.
   Looking at such cases, I think we as a society need to recognise the unique ability every student poses and must provide him/her full opportunity to grow (offcourse if other factors support). The modern society needs differentiation with respect to skills so that an individual is at the position best suited for him/her. This would make the society functional and efficient.

    P.S:  I have only shown one sided view. There is a positive side too in the same context if we look at the new generation.