Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Curious case of the missing “R”

Indians have adopted English as their own and have attached various notions around it. You are “Educated” & “Classy” if and only if you “tippy tongue” your way while speaking it. English has various local influences depending on the Region whether it is “How are you doing, Yaar ?” to “Eeendeeiyaa is my country” with “Yemmu”, “Hecchoo” replacing M & H respectively. It is hilarious as to how this Indinglish has evolved. The most comical one is the main focus this article. Quiz time, folks.

Let us see how many of you can identify the below:

1. Badae
2. Mo Kaa pa Kaa
3. Kantaavesee
4. “Thae maeku payuva kaattyu”
5. Ayan
6. Veekaa
7. Equaiya


Give up ? The answes are….

1. Birthday
2. More car per car
3. Controversy
4. “Then Maerku paruva Kaatru” (தென் மேற்கு பருவ காற்று == south west monsoon in Tamil) an NDTV Hindu anchor who is a tamil girl was trying to fit into the Indinglish scheme of pronunciation and ended up with this. But at the same time has no problem pronouncing all French names with all the native nuances in the same program :-(
5. Iron
6. Weaker
7. Require

Notice a pattern, somehow, in Indinglish if you pronounce the R in all its glory then your English is not correct! Tearing your hair out, well unless you are a “native” in this language you will not get it when spoken to by folks, especially the women folk seem to be well adept at this tippy tongue language during their college days. It is hilarious and sometimes the effort required to match the local pronunciation with the actual word requires lot of thought !!!

I would be curious to understand the basis for this “R” less English pronunciation; it certainly makes my life colorful. I will leave it at that.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Don’t worry Mr. TATA every sinner has a future…

Recently, Mr. Ratan TATA in an interview to a magazine expressed his angst at being asked 15cr for starting an airline and he rejected it as he said that “I can’t go to sleep at night, otherwise” there was deafening applause for that all around and on the face of it, appeared well deserving too..

Alas, now revelations have come about Ratan’s not so clean initiatives through Ms. Radia and today a letter written by him to Mr. Karunanidhi praising A Raja for clear headed policies in the telocom ministry and in effect recommending him for a second term.

Whatever credibility the TATA group had was destroyed by this; add to this his conversation promising a hospital and better facilities to an existing one, in exchange for “understanding” from the telecom minister. Now everyone is shocked, but except yours truly…

Why I am not surprised? The origin of success of the TATAs is the license Raj, where in they kept every private player from the industries they were in. Let us look at them Power generation and distribution for Mumbai, Automobile manufacturing, Locomotives & Steel. These are the anchors and cash cows for the TATAs and every private player who tried to get in had felt the hidden hand of TATAs in not getting licenses… This singular reason alone is enough for me to have my doubts about “Integrity”. It took an Ambani to better them in their own game (that is another story indeed…).

Today, he has given another interview expressing his desire to be known as a “clean business man”. All I can say is “You start on that initiative now… Don’t worry Mr. TATA every sinner has a future…”

Thank you Mr. Ameena Khan…

How many of you know Mr. Ameena Khan, recently he did yeomen service to this country. Well, what did he do, is he an RTI activist or NGO King or advocate for minority rights. Well none of that, but he still had done great service to this nation. He blew the lid off as to why Prathiba patil was picked for the post of president by the Italian Maatha.

Mr. Khan is a minister in the congress government of Rajasthan, recently in a some party forum in his constituency, when an issue was raised as to how come people who have worked for the party are not getting anywhere, he candidly replied pointing out the case of Prathiba Patil. He disclosed that in the congress party, more than service to party loyalty to the first family alone will get you places. He thundered “Prathiba Patil, became president because of her loyalty to Gandhis and the fact that She cooked and cleaned in Indira’s kitchen so well…”. Well sit down folks, this is what he actually said. Of course, the “High Command” has acted with alacrity and he has been removed as minister.

On my part, I want to extend sincere thanks to Khan for clarifying what is the unspoken truth in congress party. It is a real comedy, when congressmen express indignation and shock at another recent incident that of a personal security officer wiping the shoes of Ms. Mayawati in UP. Well, what can you say, the BSP students have learnt from great professors in this party of sychopants….

Monday, January 17, 2011

The arrogance of being IAS…

The arrogance of being IAS…

Yesterday, I was waiting with family in line to board the aircraft in Bangalore. Suddenly, one gentleman got up and proceeded to the top of the line. I told him firmly “Please follow the line”. That is it, not a word more was spoken. Upon checking boarding cards, when we were walking to the aircraft. He came and tried to get an apology out of me, wonder why Read on.

Him: You need to be polite.
Me: Why ?
Him: You were rude in asking me to go back.
Me: I just told you “Please follow the line”, what is the rude part in that ?
Him: Your tone was rude.
Me: I don’t think so.
Him: What are you ? My superior officer, to talk to me like that ?
Me: Listen man, you need to behave with respect and dignity to get respect. You tried to cut in line and I had to tell you to follow the line, that is it…
Him: You were arrogant, talking to me like that.
Me: Listen moron, if you don’t follow the rules this is what will happen from me. Idiot !
Him: (surprised!)(shuts up)

Upon landing at the airport I see government chamchas rushing to pick-up the tiny briefcase he was carrying. That confirmed my suspicion that he was an IAS servant.

For those of you who assumed that IAS == Indian Administrative Service it is not, it is invariably Indian Arrogant Service, where in officers live in a cocoon and treat ordinary public like shit. They invariably feel that they are entitled to privileged existence. It is time, to remember the debate in Lok Sabha, shortly after independence when the matter whether to abolish ICS (the mother of all government cadres) was being debated. One memorable quote in that debate was “It is time we abolished the ICS, it is neither Indian nor is it civil and certainly what they do is not Service”. But sadly, the anglophiles in the Lok Sabha overruled and this monstrosity of a bureaucracy continues.

Yes, we are living to regret it every moment of our lives….

Monday, January 10, 2011

Are Students part of our Society ?

We all have seen the wanton destruction and arson the students have engaged in, in the OU campus at Hyderabad. The behavior of the students is highly objectionable. They seem to have anything but academics in their mind. I am seeing lot of articles, condemning the police for whatever little action they have taken. If Hyderabad has not suffered largescale arson and wanton destruction of public/private property, then it is precisely of the pro-active action that police have taken and confined the students to just the OU campus.

Make no mistake, your rights as a student comes with responsibilities and expectations. Your singular responsibility is to study when you are in the campus. Anything other than that is not a right but a privilege. Similarly, Prof Kothandaram needs to realize that he is there in the campus to teach and not to head the JAC provoke/incite the students. If you want to do all these things then by all means get out of the campus go to your homes and then do whatever you want. They all want to exploit the location and OU facilities, often at tremendous cost due to destruction by the students, but at the same time police shouldn’t enter and set them right, as they would do to any other member of society who indulges in such abominable behavior.

As if right on cue, lot of human right/NGO industry springs up and takes up the case of human rights violations. You have a right to agitate, but you do not have a right to disrupt someone else’s life or steal their own right, which in many cases is just going about their dreary lives for the common public.

I would urge the courts and “self appointed” human rights activists to keep the rights of the rest of the society also in mind.

OU == Osmania University

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What goes around, comes around !

Quiz time folks!

Let us see how many of you remember the following statements:

1. “We want to see whether a test match can be finished in one day”
2. “We would like to adopt american baseball style switch hitting and adopt relay throw for fielding as well”
3. “We will focus on how more byes can be obtained by adopting the base stealing model”
4. “We would like the iCC to give us permission to engage two teams simultaneously”

Remember anyone ?

Well these are statements from John Buchanan and his coaching staff at several times when Ozzies were winning everything in sight.

It is a real comedy to watch this team now. When they were winners, they certainly didn’t win any friends and admirers through their abominable tactics -- with the establishment, crowd and media all willing partners and accomplices in the game of “mental disintegration” of opponents. Now, there isn’t a shoulder to cry for them.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

All India Entrance Exams or Punya Bhoomi Entrance Exams ?

Arrogance of the Medical Council of India and “National Entrance Exams”

Recently, a clever attempt by the Medical Council of India to usurp constitutional authority from the state and centre came about in the form of a mandatory Entrance Exam for all medical admissions in the country. This was disguised as one introducing common bar of judgment and in would provide relief to students who are now required to appear for several entrance examinations by various private institutions and states. On the face of it there is nothing seemingly wrong with this proposal, but the devil is in the details. These exams will be conducted only on the basis of CBSE curriculum and will be in English and Hindi only.

This should stop everyone dead - cold. Without requiring all the boards to align curriculum etc. the MCI unilaterally decided on the curriculum. Worst of all, the decision to conduct this in Hindi -- and not in other Indian languages in addition to English. There are hundreds of millions of students who study in other mediums of instruction and they all would be left out. While those that are fortunate enough to have India as “Punya Bhoomi” (== those who study in Hindi medium alone) will benefit. More than anything this singular reason is enough to stop this non-sense. Similarly the present exams in AIEEE and AIMT should also be abolished as they give undue advantage to Hindi medium students. Mind you, boards of AP/TN etc. each deal with more number of students than CBSE, yet through sheer arrogance things are being shifted towards CBSE curriculum only, causing a market shift towards it in these states and elsewhere.

The common argument for excluding all other languages given is “The medium of medical education is in English”. True, if that is valid enough to exclude Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali etc. why accommodate Hindi medium, they also have to study medicine in English isn’t it ? The right solution is to conduct this entrance exam in all official languages of India.

One more thorn in the flesh is that as usual, “minority institutions” can have their own entrance exams, but they are just required to have candidates also qualify in this so called all india exam. In a nutshell, Hindu run institutions and deemed universities are getting shafted.

Thankfully, better sense prevailed, Union health ministry admonished the MCI. Madras HC also stayed this so called “national exam”. We need to be ever more vigilant and ensure that “Unity in Diversity” is not just paid lip-service to -- by Delhi based so called “Central” institutions, but are actually required live up to it…. Start work towards abolishing any national Entrance Exam unless it is conducted in all official languages of India. If we are really serious about unity in diversity then there is no other way.