I am MOVING!!!

I know this is a bit too early to do this. But, I'm having issues using blogger.com and find it difficult to sort out. I had a good run with wordpress.com earlier with a pseudonym. So, I thought I'll move to suhailrasheed.wordpress.com

I apologise for any inconvenience caused by this change. Do not forget to update your bookmarks with the new link. Click here to visit the new blog. Meanwhile, all the old posts have been exported to the new site and your comments are intact. Thank you for staying tuned. Good Day, Good Night!!!

Revisiting Kannathil Muthamittal

Taking the newspaper in hand, this morning, the front page news gave me a chill. 58,000 Tamils fleeing. But, there was more to it. It was the photo that captured my attention. In 2002, Mani Ratnam directed a movie called "Kannathil Muthamittal" (A Peck on the Cheek). It was one of the most flawless movies I have ever watched. Other film directors have claimed that Kannathil Muthamittal should be every film director's reference work. The photo on the frontpage today sent me back to the movie. 

When the character played by Madhavan and his wife (played by Simran) reach the village of Mankulam (Sri Lanka) in a bid to find their adopted daughter's (played by P.S. Keerthana) biological mother, they find the whole village fleeing, with whatever it could take with it. An impending air strike forces the natives of Mankulam to leave the village they were born and brought up in. An aerial view pans and zooms in on the fleeing villagers as the protagonists try to find Shyama, the biological mother. Finding Shyama, they try to convince her that the girl is her daughter. Shyama breaks out into tears, all of a sudden: "Ithu en kolanthe alley." (This is not my daughter). They got the wrong Shyama. Shyama tells them, between tears, how she lost her daughter at a tender age to the military strikes. 

It is the migration scene that is imprinted in my mind, the most. The photos in today's papers were identical. The haunting vocals and A.R. Rahman's music during the migration scene, came back to me as I looked at the photograph. Kannathil Muthamittal was one masterpiece of a work. The plight of Sri Lankan Tamils was showcased well, in the story of a child's search for her biological parents. There wouldn't be a better time to revisit the movie. 

My impressions about the movie after watching it were: how could every one in the movie act so well? The "wrong" Shyama too looked amazing in a role that took less than 2 minutes of screen space. A suicide bomber who talks to the little girl from the park, exhibits amazing facial expressions while jumping towards a government vehicle. No wonder then that the film was lauded at many International Film Festivals. It won awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2003, the Los Angeles Indian Film Festival and the RiverRun International Film Festival, not to mention the 6 National Film Awards (India) it received.

If you haven't watched the movie, go watch it now. Mani Ratnam has a way for shooting emotions on screen. The final scene may fill your eyes with tears. But the movie holds a message and it is even valid for today. I hand over the newspaper to my wife and ask her, pointing at the front page photograph, "Remind you of something?" "Kannathil Muthamittal?" She asks.

[Edits: I received a request to publish the photo from the newspaper. My answer is,

Scanning and attaching a newspaper clipping to my blog is a violation of copyright. I don't want to do that. If you are interested in seeing the photos, search "Sri Lanka" or "Sri Lankan Tamils" in Google and you'll find lots of images showing the migration. One example is this link from Hindu. Click here]

Summer Slumber

What is it like to sleep in the summer? The heat takes out your shirt. The heat pulls down your trousers. You just want to get out of bed. But, you are too drained out to do so. Every now and then a gentle gust of wind from the fan touches your bare back and the cold sweat gives you the priceless chill. Then, it is gone.

You have umpteen things to do for the day. Your body is, but, tied to the bed. You just want to get out of bed. But, you are too drained out to do so. The bed covers get dirty with sweat and mosquito blood. Oh yeah, there are the mosquitoes. They don't leave you alone in summer. They come swarming at you from all angles, take your blood and make it their own. The pain in the neck and the pain in the back gets worse with the itch on the ass. Yuck! I wonder if this is the hottest place on earth. I grope in the darkness of the early morning to find my watch and with it, the time of the hour. Oh, it's five and you're late.

All my green values and eco-friendliness tries to stop me. But, I can't stop my arms from moving toward the remote control. I switch on the AC and in 10 minutes, I'm back to Switzerland in my dreams.

It's the exponential growth of global warming that I have no idea of stopping. Look at the above condition for example. Sleeping in summer is indeed, difficult with the summers getting hotter every year. I read in the newspaper some time in February, that the average temperature in Delhi during February had climbed 1 degree Celsius during the past year. Temperature is rising due to a lot of things. But, temperature is mainly rising due the rise in temperature. The amount of heat an air-conditioner lets out while working needs no imagination. You only need to stand near the outdoor unit to get the idea. As the summer heat rises, the use of air conditioners will rise as well. This cycle accelerates global warming, no doubt. The power consumption of ACs are reason for alarm as well.

I have a bad solution for this. I switch on the AC for some time and then switch it off. It's not the greatest solution but it works in my case. Last month, I also tried another method to reduce the heat. I got the whole roof painted white with slaked lime (Cost Rs.750/- total). Ah, it's quite different now. I can at least halve my power consumption for AC, now. These are quick-fix solutions. But, those who are building homes now can make a difference. Those who are planning to build new homes must stress on eco-friendliness rather than aesthetics, while meeting the Architect. Of course, you need aesthetics to show off. You need aesthetics to want to come back home from wherever you are. But if you don't have an eco-friendly home, only you suffer: none of those who appreciated the aesthetics of your home is going to come and sleep in your house. As a Civil Engineer, I have always had enquiries from friends, relatives on how to reduce the heat in their home. Most of the ways I suggest must be at the cost of aesthetics. But, they can't compromise with aesthetics.

As I tried to wake up this morning, this were the very thoughts on my mind. But, tired and famished, it took the rest of the morning to nourish me up. And, I could write only in the afternoon. It's so good to see you all visiting my blog. Thank You! Good Day, Good Night!!!

Pen is mightier than the Sword

When you look at the title, you feel, "Really? Is that so?" When I was just 10 or 11 and at school, our class was asked to prepare essays on famous proverbs. The proverb I was asked to elaborate was "Pen is mightier than the sword". Writing has come a long way since that proverb. I don't remember exactly what I wrote for the essay. In this age of internet and non-print media, one would really ask, "Is it? Is the pen really mightier than the sword?" 

What can a pen possibly do that a sword cannot? A sword can only instil fear. It cannot convince people of ideas. Pen brings ideas. It changes the course of a nation. If books like Mein Kampf (Hitler), Das Kapital (Marx) and The Origin of Species (Darwin) are examples, could we doubt the might of the pen? In fact, more books and writings have changed the course of history than wars. 

But, where do blogs figure? Blogs are relatively new and confined to the Internet. Yet, blogs can influence people. I have read blogs which some people read with religious determination. They give inspiration for living each day. Some blogs are heavily relied upon while we make financial decisions. Some blogs give us a different angle of the news we read or listen or watch everyday. Blogging, believe it or not, has become a powerful media taking in mind the number of people glued to it. It's an inexpensive media where you can write your ideas in brief and reach an audience that was otherwise inaccessible through books. Seth Godin says, 

"Blogs have eliminated the reason for most business books to exist. If you can say it in three blog posts and reach more people, then waiting a year and putting in all that effort seems sort of pointless." 

(Read Seth Godin's blog on the same topic here)

My thoughts were confirmed yesterday when I went through the BusinessWeek's list of India's Most Powerful People 2009 and found Amit Varma (founder of the blog India Uncut) in the list. The list of 50 places Amit Varma at 48. Amit Varma is in the list for keeping "readers hooked" and bringing a "particular libertarian point of view to his columns and blog items". I am impressed reading through his blog and wish to follow it regularly.

The idea of putting a blogger on the list of India's Most Powerful People has opened our eyes to the possibility of our next revolution coming through a blog page or social networking sites. Blogging is as powerful a media as television or newspaper, without all the expenses involved. So, I hope that with this tool we bring good thinking rather than evil. And, I hope you will stay by me throughout. Thank You. Good Day, Good Night!!!

Suhailspeak in Tweets

Lazy Sunday. Woke up little before 6 in the morning. Spent some time with wife, drinking tea and sharing thoughts. Spent some time reading. Then, spent some time playing with daughter when she woke up. Okay, spent some time having breakfast. Went to the beauty parlor. Got a hair cut. Got the beard trimmed. Came back home. Had a little almond milk shake. Took a cool bath. Read and re-read the newspaper. Played with the blog. Snapped some pictures of me. Thought it would look great on my blog header.  Had mutton biriyani for lunch. Played the rest of the afternoon with the blog. Changed the whole layout of the blog. Read a book. Still reading. Kept looking back at the blog to see if more readers had visited. Skipped a visit to the beach. Had tea, but no kadi. Back to looking at blog. Back to reading. Back to posting. Thinking whether people read blogs on Sundays. 

I am not a great Twitter fan. But, I find it effective to tell the world what you are doing every minute of your life. I don't use it for that, though. For the occasional announcements, I find it a good tool. For the readers who haven't tweeted as yet, visit twitter.com

It's fun. Those short statements above are what typical tweets look like. Follow me at twitter.com/suhailrasheed

Thank you for reading. Good Day, Good Night!!! (No serious posting for today)

On other blogs

Yesterday, my brother published his own blog and the first two posts. One of the posts was an introduction to himself. The other was his take on the breeding of violent youngsters with help from TV and media. Well, it's something I always wanted to write about. But, looking at the anger with which my brother presented it, I don't have anything more to write about it. His topic, I believe, is peeled from a chapter of his own life. His blog can be found at http://zishanharis.blogspot.com/

I also wish him the very best in blogging. Good Day, Good Night!!!

From Frustration to Anger to Peace

Pretty lazy day, today!!! So, I thought not to post anything serious for thought. It's weekend and as I am jobless, it normally does not mean much to me. Today, well, I have a wedding reception to attend and I'll be busy with that for the rest of the evening. My worries however, hover as I read about a person who is frustrated. I've lately gone through frustrations myself and knew what frustrations would result in.

Recession is a time for frustration for a lot of unlikely people in the most unlikely places. Friends who draw five-figure salaries are especially frustrated. The ones with families are most likely to break down under this pressure when frustration builds up. Being jobless or going through bad marriages cause most frustrations. But, the recession has brought together the both of these together. 

Example. A person, let's call him X, changed jobs last year. He's happy with the huge increment he received with the change. He thought, "well, i'll buy a new property and maybe a car. oh what the hell, how about a macbook as well?" X saves little, swipes his credit card to the limit and is positive he can pay the EMIs. Well, he received twice as much as he received the year before. SO, it's the natural thing to do. Recession hits a few months later. First, his pay is halved. "Take it or leave." It was a sign asking him to leave. But he had too much at stake. He stayed to pay off the EMIs. That's when his family started to lose its freedom. No dine-outs, no more internet shopping, no toys for the child and suddenly, he is working more hours than before. Reason. Some of his colleagues had left the half-paid job. 

Frustration starts showing up only a week into the new routine. Wife nags whenever X is back home. Boss shouts when he is at office. Bank intimidates when his payments are late. X doesn't want the shit-job. He was too dependent on the pay. Nothing satisfied him anymore. X quits the job and goes back to India because he read in a business magazine that the Indian boom story isn't over. While leaving Dubai, he defaults on all the EMI payments that were pending against him. X hunts for job in all the major cities in India. Nobody wanted him. He was too expensive to hire. X moves to tier-II cities.  No jobs there, either. Could he write to the business magazine for help? No, they won't help. What's he to do? He rushes home for some comfort. His wife, more frustrated than ever, shouts at him and demands some peace. Anger wells out. X shouts too. After all the spending he had done on her, how could she shout at him? 

I know it is tiring to read. But, I am not done yet. The marriage breaks and X is alone. What do you learn? There are lots of things that X had done, that any man would have done. But there is one thing he could have done to change everything and get his life back. The sanctity of marriage is not dependent on money or job. 

Frustration results from a lot of things. Recession and the current job scenario is just one example. We have living examples of how recession builds frustration. Frustration eventually leads to anger and anger leads to uncertainty. Some people recover from anger, while others can stop getting angry. A third kind says all the wrong things when they get angry. These things can never be eaten like the words I ate for breakfast on April 14. Recession cannot be controlled. Frustration cannot be contained. But, anger can be managed. We, collectively referring to all Indians, have a particular sense of achievement when we get angry. When two person are angry and are in an argument, it is believed that the angrier person or the one who swears the most wins the argument. We like to get angry show that we are tough. I need to stress this again: anger can be managed. It doesn't matter if you lost your job; it doesn't matter if your wife is mad at you; it doesn't matter if the car behind you is honking at your nerves; it doesn't even matter if the same car hits your bumper and it gets dented. If we can really manage anger, none of this matters. You can sort it out.

Experts in anger management give a lot of suggestions. Some say that when you get angry, you can count to ten or hundred or thousand until your anger subsides. Some others say that you can just try to relax by closing your eyes. Islamic principles say that you either take an ablution for prayer or if you still can't control the anger, that you observe two rakaat of prayer. All this might seem complicated when you are in the midst of an argument. But, it works. However, each of you may have a different idea for doing it. Well, that's where we part. Write to me at suhailrasheed@gmail.com (although I didn't get a single mail to date) about how you control your anger. And, to the person who was so frustrated this morning, I hope reading this article helps. Don't let it get you. 

A word on Parenting

At a party I attended recently, I had an interesting conversation with an uncle of mine. The topic arised when I mentioned a fact about Finland's education system, which is ranked as the best system in the world. I had learned the fact from a book I recently read, Freakonomics. Formal education in Finland began when the child attains the age of seven. Another uncle, who is an advocate of home-schooling, also once mentioned to me that the right age for beginning formal education according to Islamic principles, is at six years. However, at the party, the discussion took a different route. 

My uncle has, I suppose, read a lot. He told me a little about child psychology. "Suhail, what you said is right! It is not by coincidence that a place where education starts at seven became the place with the best education system. What we don't understand is that the best education a child can get comes before he is 6. And the teachers are not school-teachers and may not even be barely educated. The first teachers for a child are his parents and his peers. They form him for a large part. This is how it works..."

My uncle's point was that a child goes through different stages in his childhood. Stage 1 is upto 6 years. It is stage 1 that shapes the perceptions of a child, the same perceptions that would take him into his adulthood. A parent might find mistakes in the way his child ties the shoelaces, the way he eats his food or the way he wets the bathroom floor. This is because, the parent finds it different from the way he himself used to do it. The parent wants the child to be him. So he says, "this is not the way you tie your shoe-laces, this is not the way you do that, this is not the way you do this..." and so on. The child notes everything unconsciously. An alarm clock is set in his mind, that buzzes each time the child is about to do something in the future: "This is the not the way you do it." 

In stage 2 (6 - 12), the child corrects his vision. There are some things his parent told him not to do, but the parent always does. Slowly, in stage 2, the child forms corrections in his perceptions. With this, his views change a little, but not much. But, from stage 1 to stage 2, the child has formed everything that will shape his future. Very few children, if at all, come out of the perceptions he form during this time.

In stage 3, he is public. I believe stage 3 would be 12 - 21. The child is asked to sing on stage. He wants to do it but the alarm bells ring, "This is not the way to do it. You cannot do it." Unknowingly, the parent had switched off one key ingredient of success from the child's mind, when he was still a child under 6. That one key ingredient is confidence. Confidence is the ingredient that makes us attempt the impossible. Only, my uncle was just explaining an example. This could go anywhere. Some children turn out to be violent based on their childhood. Some turn out to be leaders in their chosen field, whatever that is. 

I put the psychology into the context of two families. One family had a father who was very critical of children. He just wouldn't allow his children to do anything on their own. Today, all of the children have that deep down rotten feeling that, "i'm good for nothing" or that "i can't do it". They are all bright by birth. Somewhere in between, they lost the courage to attempt impossible things. They lost their sense of adventure. Only the first feelings are difficult to set in. Once, you have the basic rotten feeling inside, you go down to doom with much ease. 

The other family had a very "free" father. He never expected his children to behave the way he was accustomed to. He let the children's imagination grow with them. He would never say what to do and what not to. He places his trust in his children. And eventually, the children turn out to be as good as their father. One good quality they developed over the years is that when they aim for something, they aim really high. 

The two instances are only indicative. You may have more examples, you can write to me at suhailrasheed@gmail.com and there may be cases where the opposite happened. Any views are welcome. I have utmost gratitude to my parents who raised me between both the ends. We weren't raised too "freely" nor were we raised in strict disciplinarian systems. We've attained fairly high goals, though. My final point is that, the way you want them to grow up does not matter if the way you put it across is right. But, whatever energy you give them, positive or negative, the best time to give it is when they are young and under 6. 

Towards a Green Tomorrow

And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels: "Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth." They said: "Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, - while we glorify You with praises and thanks (Exalted be You above all that they associate with You as partners) and sanctify You." He (Allâh) said: "I know that which you do not know." (Al-Baqarah 2:30, The Holy Quran)

On March 28, 2009 between 2030 and 2130 IST, I participated in the Earth Hour 2009, staying home with my in-laws. Many of you must have seen the status on my facebook profile: “Proud to have observed Earth Hour 2009”. Some had to ask me what the Earth Hour was. Others laughed with skepticism. Switching off the power for one hour seems to be a ridiculous thing to do with very few benefits to reap from doing it. So, why did hundreds of millions of people the world over do this “ridiculous” thing for a particularly “uninteresting” group called World Wildlife Fund?

When I was at school, in 6^th or 7^th, I remember learning for the first time, about global warming. Ever since, every year we learned the same thing again and again, with few updates. But, I never really thought this had anything to do with me. For me, these topics made great topic for essays. We could expect essay questions in our examinations and we could score high with this particular question. Global warming, greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, greenhouse gases and what not – all formed parts of the environmental education we received at school. I even won second prize in an essay writing competition, writing about environmental pollution.

A couple of years back, reading tits and bits and watching television, I came to know that there’s a huge market for green design and green products, nowadays. Being a civil engineer myself, I started scouring websites and books concerning these topics to learn more. I came across names like Al Gore, R.K. Pachauri, Thomas Friedman and other people who had already dedicated their life to bring about an eco-friendly world. And, most shocking of all, I learnt that the empty Bisleri bottles I threw away, the cigarettes I smoked and threw away, the empty aerosol cans I threw away, the litres of petrol I consumed to move around, the number of times in a year I flew to my parents on vacation, the number of printouts I took of the same drawing and many more such careless acts were coming back to haunt our generation and the next generations.

Why is this important now? Watch Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” or read Thomas L. Friedman’s “Hot, Flat & Crowded” and you’ll know that the biggest threat to the world this century is not communalism or terrorism – in fact, the biggest threat to the world now, lies within us – each of us – in what we did and what we didn’t.

Global warming is more important now than ever. The growth of spread of greenhouse gases in the last fifteen years does not give reason for alarm, but the growth during the last five years does. The people who smirked at me with skepticism when I observed the Earth Hour were very educated and included a university professor. He said, “People don’t know why they are doing this. They are doing this for fun. What’s the use of observing Earth Hour in Kerala? These are American sayippu’s inventions.” And blah, blah, blah…

One step makes a difference. If, each one of the members of tens of thousands of homes which participated in the Earth Hour, thought that there is no use observing Earth Hour in a state like Kerala, would we have saved the 100MW of power we actually saved. The world is rising to the truth. Global warming is not an American issue or European issue. It is a global issue, much more serious than terrorism. Soon, our coasts will be consumed by the ever rising levels of sea-water. The world will become hotter and hotter and species will start disappearing. The energy crisis combined with global warming, needs the attention of today’s youngsters. We need to act. We need to cut short our wasteful ways. We need to understand that the best way out of the current recession also is to move along an eco-friendly path.

There are numerous resources on global warming and climate change, available online. These websites help you to understand, with facts, what the current scenario is. These websites also tell you how you can make a difference, not with a donation, but with a proactive sense of participation. And, to the skeptical ones who asked, the Earth Hour was indeed a huge global success. Conserving the Earth is not just for us, today’s generation. It is for tomorrow, our children, their children and many more generations to come.

Do write in your feelings about this issue to my email address, suhailrasheed@gmail.com and others who want to learn more about it, do write to me so that I can guide you to the suitable literature. I cannot say that I have completely changed into a “green” being, but even a small step in that direction could make a big difference. So, I urge you all to be a part of this and I urge you to stop making “mischief” on Earth. Good Day, Good Night!!!

The Endurance of Pain

What do you understand when I say "endurance of pain"? A person I know was subject to pain (all kinds) all his life. He is now around 30. Because he can't feel pain anymore, he expects the same from others too. So, even his "touch" hurts people now. I am not kidding. I couldn't help thinking what kind of pain would give a person such coldness in blood. I wrote a short story about the whole thing. It ended up being quite long. But, I can post the opening lines from the story. I called it "the Endurance of Pain". I've not sent it to anyone so far. It may require lots of editing until it's worthy of sending. Well, after reading through this excerpt, I want you to mail me on suhailrasheed@gmail.com about what you really think would happen with endurance of pain. Good Day, Good Night!!!

The sixth full fist on my face brought the first smells of blood to my nose. I couldn’t point out a single place from where the blood could have probably come out. My whole body was shrouded in a pain so uniform that it didn’t really matter where I took the next fist. There are many people in this beautiful world who haven’t known the smell of blood. But, for the many people like me, in a cruel world like this, the smell of blood is only a symptom of worse things to come. I have gone through all this before. Endurance of pain eventually ends up in absence of pain. It’s only the first blow that hurts the most. Thereafter, a kind of numbness sets in and as I’ve already mentioned, it doesn’t really matter where you take the next blow.

I’m Peter Fagin, the son of a millionaire. When I came into this world, I was said to have born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Though, taking it literally, I don’t remember any such thing. My father was not the sort of millionaire who had lots of money. He was a man with a million qualities. That’s the only wealth he had and the only wealth he would ever bequeath to me. I have no idea, then, why a bunch of hoodlums took me in on a nice Sunday evening, so far away from town, where people hardly knew me or my past. I kept saying to my abductors that “you are making a big mistake. You have the wrong person”; but they took it in the wrong sense. But this can’t go on for long, or it would be the end of my life.

“Having done this for so long, I beg you to kill me or I’ll come back for you, each one of you. I’ll hunt you down and get my revenge. So, don’t leave me alive. Kill me if you want a life.” I kept muttering with the little breath I had. I knew it wouldn’t help much. I wanted them to give up. I wanted to show that they had lost. But they didn’t stop.

The next blow came to my stomach; then, my crotch, my calf muscles, my face again, my head, my ….

I must have passed out. When I came to my senses, I could feel that I was being lifted and carried somewhere. I tried to count the number of places on my body where it ached. There was a man holding my hands and another holding my legs. I could feel the wind growing stronger and stronger. The wind kissed my wounds and gave me a sort of pleasure in pain. Then, finally my carriers stopped. The next moment, I could feel the swing. In three swings, I saw my entire life move before me. It was like a movie. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Who among my worst enemies or best friends had thought of this? Who was planning to kill me?

They had, in fact, come to kill me. With the third and final swing, I could feel no more props. The hoodlums, f*** them, had let me go. In what seemed to be eternity, I knew the answer. I knew this was the end. Yet, in that moment, I was happy to know the name of my punisher. And, then, I kept falling down for a long time.

Conversations with the Swede

I'm on a prolonged vacation. I have been here for more than two months now. A prolonged vacation is synonymous to being jobless. As you see, that's what allows me to write. It has allowed me to do lots of other things as well. My posting on career choices was meant to reflect the times. My vacation happens to be during the greatest economic depression since The Great Depression. Words have changed though. To soften the blow, we use the word "recession" as it is more easy on the ears than "depression". This is a scenario affecting the whole world and we, Indians, have the habit of being positive at the wrong time of history. This optimism is also called over-confidence and without a little research, it could turn our lives upside down, if we are not prepared. 

My point is not to discuss the recession. If you want that, go to nytimes.com or mckinseyquarterly.com for detailed, in-depth analysis of the economic downturn. I have a job waiting for me to get back and here I am, celebrating recession. There is a good chance, though, that I'll stay back in India and that I won't go back to claim my job again. That's a different story, too.

This time around, I found time for a lot of other things. Meeting people was one among them. I met this Swede who has been living in Kannur for more than 12 years. I started meeting him occasionally. We talk about anything under the sun. But, I would like to share some of the ideas we exchanged during the past month. 

He has a son and a daughter. He says his son, a student of Environmantal Science, has moved out. His daughter will move out soon, too. "Moved out" is something permanent. After a person moves out, he meets his family only during Christmas and sometimes more infrequently. The old man himself didn't see his mother for 35 years, at a time. I told him that we have a system here which demands families to stick together even if they move out. Well, what can I say, he argued that the Indian system is failing. His view went like this. In the Indian system, old people get a second life seeing their grandchildren grow. It's a pleasure that makes them want to live each day. In the Western system, old people are not used to that. They have no problems living alone. They adjust to it with ease. But now, owing to the children's migration to countries like US and UK, the Indian grandfather is more and more alone. It is unbearable for him to live violating centuries-old system. Apparently, the Indian system is breaking to give way for the Western ideology. He was not happy about it, though. He says, the Indians should never have tried to be like the Europeans or Americans. Alhough I didn't agree with the Swede entirely his point was true to an extent.

Knowing the predicament I am in, concerning my job, the other day, he suggested me to go to Iraq.  Well, if someone from my family had suggested that to me, I would have labelled it cruel. But, coming from the Swede, I knew he would have a good reason for saying it. I prepared to listen. 

Iraq is a war-torn country. But, it is also a rich country. The resources are lying there, waiting to be tapped. And, the Iraqi government is on a hunting spree to bring in the best companies in the world to invest in its country. Meanwhile, the riots, the bombings have receded to the outskirts and interiors. Baghdad and places like Basra, are waiting for a new infrastructure boom. Recently Iraqi ministers visited countries all over Europe giving away contracts worth millions of dollars. My Swede friend was quick to point out that if one gets there at the beginning of the boom, one may grow to a good extent.  True as his words are, we do doubt before jumping into decisions. We all value our lives more than anything else. 

But, his words made me think. It is the Westerners' spirit of adventure and risk-taking that took them to places even before they were civilised. Their leadership abilities and overall development does not come from their address. But, it is from their daring to go where others fear to tread. 

As long as my vacation continues, I promise myself to be in touch with the Swede. There are things we can learn from him. Good day, Good night!!!

Suhail Rasheed

[Edits: Read the comments on this post]

Guide them, don't ruin them!!!

We have a serious crisis hitting our youngsters. It's not unemployment. It's unemployability. I recently had the courage to write a short letter to a newly launched careers magazine. I haven't got a reply, as yet. But, the topic of my letter was something; concerned with the current season. Just about a month after the 10th and 12th exams, the current season shapes a lot of people's dreams and aspirations, knowingly or unknowingly. Some of them would listen to parents and some others would listen to friends, while deciding their stream of study or eventually, their career. My letter to the magazine's editor asked him to simply stick to one basic rule: "Guide them, don't ruin them!"

Youngsters, myself included, have just one idea of career: A career is something I'll do after my 12th, or after my graduation. 

We all advise them. We don't teach them one thing. We don't reflect on what it is that we are facing after so many years in a career. If we do, we would ask them to rethink; because, careers are not what we do after our 12th or after our graduation, careers are what we do for life. It's a plan. It's not a course. It's a definite plan for what you want to be for the rest of your life. 

Some of my friends have started to face these problems, now, after 6 or 7 years working in the same field. The monotony of their jobs have forced them to reconsider the paths they had set out on, many years ago. What is that we want to do with our life? Certainly, it's not what pays most. And, it's not what takes you to places. But, it's all about what you are happy doing. 

Why do we then advise our youth, to "opt [for] Aeronautical Engineering, because it is a job in demand", when he has no idea what "aeronautical" is or what he would do after that course. A student who opts for the Commerce stream is most likely to be taken less seriously than a student who opts for Science stream. No, don't deny it. I'm talking about the general impression.

A boy I know was forced to take a shot at CPT [the preliminary test for CA, in the new scheme]. The boy had no interest whatsoever in being a Chartered Accountant. But, his mother wanted him to go for it, all because, someone recently told her that, "CAs make a lot of money". He wasted a lot of money preparing for CPT, and also spent a lot of time on it. He couldn't clear the CPT.

My solution to the problem is a simple one. Some of my readers may have better ideas. Do mail them to me. 

My solution is that, we must show the way for our youngsters, but we must not tell them what to find there. We often explain to them what the trendiest industries are and where they can be found. But, we don't tell them what they require for that particular kind of job. I had friends who had no basic skills in mathematics and yet, they ended up studying engineering. Well, it's quite a mammothian task; some worked hard and made it, while others dropped out of the course, eventually. Who could be held responsible for that? 

The way, as I see it, is to inculcate the habit of reading in youngsters. There are lots of career magazines and books on choosing careers. Pay attention to some of them. For books, one could check out Pervin Melhotra's career guides or Richard Nelson Bolles' What Colour is your Parachute? and for magazines - there are plenty of them online but, - if you are interested in print, then the newly launched Careers 360 would be a good choice. These magazines and books mention what kind of skills, each profession demands. It is also beneficial to help the subject plan for his future. Future is not five years. It could be 10 years, 15 years or 25 years. A student choosing a career must have at least a fair idea of where he can go with his chosen career.

The whole point is that next time you advise a youngster about his career,  guide him, but don't   ruin him. 

[Edits: Read the comments on this post]

Eating Words for Breakfast

Today is a fresh day in my life. The turning point was last night when some of my thoughts caught me off hook. I have said things that I never intended to mean anything. I have always shied away from writing for the public. But, last night's thoughts changed all that. So, this morning, I'm eating my words for breakfast. 

Writing under pseudonyms always pleased me, as few people would read it and the few who read it would be most unlikely to know who's behind the words. I was afraid of two things: recognition and criticism. I always wanted to write for my own peace. It was therapeutic. Writing helped me ease my pains. I really wonder now, though, whether it was therapeutic at all if nobody read it. 

My perspective changed for a lot of reasons. If I don't get a single piece of criticism or recognition, I wouldn't ever know whether there were other angles to the same topic. I would be ego-centric. I would hate to be interrupted (something that happened frequently off late). I would never see the other side of things: the beautiful side or the ugly side, depending on which way you look at it. 

Writing is a conversation. I do not talk to my friends about my problems, my pains. But, I write. If I was really positive about what I always wrote, I would always have written under my name. So, it's not really recognition that I am worried about; it's criticism. I faked the attitude that recognition would take the spirit off my writing and for the same reason, I said I didn't need recognition. I said, I was afraid that once people started reading me, I would write for their satisfaction, rather than mine. What I was really running away from, was criticism. Writing for my own peace, showing my anger to none but me, I've failed to differentiate what I am really inside and what I look like on the outside. 

Writers need criticism. At the end of criticism is recognition. And, without recognition, a writer hasn't tread one step beyond himself. Without recognition, he has only managed to please himself. Writing for the masses, as I wish to take up now, requires commitment and discipline. I'm known to be lethargic and it is quite possible that I won't write regularly. But, when one writes under his own name, he has to be bothered about his self-esteem and he must know that he is not anybody else but himself, right then. 

With that rather challenging thought, I woke up this morning and ate the words of my past, with bitterness. Who would want to admit his mistake after propounding it for so long? 

The point is, I must. I haven't really thought about the periodicity of my writing. But, let's say this for now: I certainly hope to meet you at regular intervals and I would like to share my thoughts. Criticism or recognition, do not fail to write back. Good day, Good night!

Suhail Rasheed