The necessity of the word

THERE is an ancient legend which tells us that when a man first achieved
a most notable deed he wished to explain to his tribe what he had done.
As soon as he began to speak, however, he was smitten with dumbness,
he lacked words, and sat down. Then there arose - according to the story - a masterless man, one who had taken no part in the action of his fellow,
who had no special virtues, but afflicted - that is the phrase - with the magic of the necessary words. He saw, he told, he described the merits
of the notable deed in such a fashion, we are assured, that the words
"became alive and walked up and down in the hearts of all his hearers." Thereupon, the tribe seeing that the words were certainly alive,
and fearing lest the man with the words would hand down untrue tales
about them to their children, they took and killed him.
But later they saw that the magic was in the words,
not in the man.

"The record of the tribe is in its enduring. The magic of literature lies in words and not in any man. Witness, a thousand excellent, strenuous words can leave us quite cold or put us to sleep, whereas a bare half- hundred words breathed by some man in his agony or in his exaltation, or in his idleness, ten generations ago, can still lead a whole nation into and out of its captivity, can open to us the doors of three worlds, or stir us so intolerably that we can scarcely abide to look at own souls."

-Kipling, Kipling's Analysis of True Literature, The Scrap book

Outsourced!

This video and others from the 2006 film "Outsourced" are pretty good. Though I'd be baffled to see anyone who would take losing her job so lightly, this movie promises to be one which you could show your American friend who is puzzled at an Indian's oddball behavior. Go to the movie website to see a streaming video of the first 8 minutes of this movie. Though I did not see the rest of it, the teasers do promise something impressive. Now, with the news that the NBC (The Office) guys would be looking at converting this into a TV series, you can be hopeful of finding an American on the road teaching you how they do things out there in India :)



And, talking about outsourcing, you shouldn't be missing this one!

India Poised!

Here's the text of Amitabh's "India Poised"ad: "There are two Indians in this country. One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been showering recently upon us. The other India is the leash. One India says, give me a chance and I’ll prove myself .The other India says prove yourself first and maybe then you’ll have a chance. One India lives in the optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in the skepticism of our minds. One India Wants. The Other India Hopes. One India Leads .The Other India Follows. But conversions are on the rise .With each passing day more and more people from the other India have been coming over to this side. And quietly while the world is not looking, a pulsating, dynamic new India is emerging. An India whose faith in success is far greater than its fear of failure. An India that no longer boycotts foreign-made goods but buys out the companies that makes them instead. History, they say, is a bad motorist. It rarely ever signals its intentions when it is taking a turn. This is that rarely ever moment. History is turning a page. For more than half a century ,our nation has sprung, stumbled ,run , fallen ,rolled over ,got up ,dusted herself and cantered, sometimes lurched on. But today as we begin our 60th year as a free nation, the ride has brought us to the edge of times great precipice. And one India – a tiny little voice at the back of the head – is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating. The other India is looking up at the sky and saying, its time to fly…"

And here's an excerpt from The Economic Times on the state of the Indian economy: India's economy set for more strong growth, 2 Sep, 2007, 0955 hrs IST, AGENCIES NEW DELHI: India looks set for another year of strong growth after the economy unexpectedly accelerated by a scorching 9.3 per cent during the first three months, analysts say. Last Friday's first-quarter data, driven by robust manufacturing and services output, surprised many analysts who had forecast growth as low as 8.5 per cent after five interest rate hikes in a year. The aggressive monetary tightening and a stronger rupee, which has hit exports, means it is unlikely India will repeat last year's torrid 9.4 per cent expansion, the fastest in 18 years, analysts say But India's "growth story," which has prompted foreigners to pump billions of dollars into shares, infrastructure and other investments, remains intact. Expansion is being "consumption led" with "rising incomes and a growing middle class" in the country of 1.1 billion people, said Deepak Lalwani, director at London investment house Astaire and Partners. "The economy has gained its own strong momentum due to cumulative reforms," said Lalwani, who sees growth of 8.5-9.0 per cent in the fiscal year to March 2008. Agriculture, which has pulled down the broader economy, also fared better than expected during the first quarter, posting 3.8 per cent growth. While nine percent is at the upper end range of most full-year forecasts, economists have raised their expectations following the quarterly figures. JP Morgan boosted its growth estimate from eight to 8.6 per cent and Morgan Stanley from 7.7 per cent to 7.8 per cent. India's HDFC bank said it was looking at "8.5 per cent plus" from an earlier 8.3 per cent. Other investment houses said they were considering hiking their forecasts. Finance Minister P Chidambaram said he was "confident GDP growth will remain close to nine per cent this year" even though first-quarter growth was "a shade below" the 9.6 per cent expansion logged in the year-ago period. India's economy, which has expanded by an average annual 8.6 per cent in the past three years, is the fastest growing after neighbouring China. China's economy expanded by a roaring 11.9 per cent in the second quarter. Analysts say India's growth would cool in coming quarters as the central bank's tight money policy, which has pushed interest rates to five-year highs, crimps capacity expansion and hurts credit growth. Sales of cars are already slowing due to higher loan costs and spending on consumer durables has fallen. "There is some softness already in credit growth and rail freight and exports," said Abheek Barua, chief economist at HDFC Bank. But the central bank is unlikely to ease its hawkish monetary policy stance rapidly. Data Friday showed inflation fell to below four percent for the first time in over 15 months to 3.96 per cent but the strong first-quarter growth means that fears of overheating are still alive, analysts said. "It does not seem likely the central bank will loosen rates in a hurry... (as) the economy continues to grow at an above trend pace," said Manika Premsingh at Edelweiss Capital brokerage. The new inflation rate is far below the bank's annual target of "close" to five percent. But economists say the drop was mainly due to a high base effect from a year earlier when inflation stood at 5.6 per cent. "The bank won't be lulled," said Soumitra Chaudhuri, economic advisor to credit rating agency ICRA. "Inflation isn't dead, the economy is growing fast, and if you don't watch inflation it will come back with a vengeance," he said. (Shamelessly) Posted as-is from:

Water Woes In India

A two-part video that give you a vivid picture of the drinking water problems in India. Now, wasn't water a basic need of man?

Part 1
Part 2

[Unfortunately (yep, for me!) NYT moved both these links without letting me know - and I'm quite occupied for a while that I've not been able to fish out some means of putting those links back. Anyways, you could go to any of the two links, and type-in 'Water Woes in India Somini Sengupta', and I'll sit here and hope you'll get a video with this description at least on the second page of the search results :)]

My take:
Then, who said India's economy is booming?
Update, Jan 18, 2008:

Links have been updated with NY Times permalinks for these posts. Here is the corresponding article. It's high time we understand that economic growth at the cost of our environment - we'll soon leave nothing for the economically prosperous country to survive on.
(Courtesy: The New York Times)

Internet Generation and Well Being

Image Courtesy(Click Image!)

My mom is not very enthusiastic about me staying in far-far-away-land, and she doesn't believe that the world is becoming smaller either. She keeps asking me to come back to the world I love. A few days back she sent me an article she had read in the local newspaper, and wanted me to read it. It was a study conducted by MTV Networks International on Wellbeing, on a huge cross-section of kids and youth, and the results suggest against the common belief that this speedily globalising world is evenly growing and would become culturally flat as the differences evaporate.

The study, the largest ever undertaken by MTV Networks International, took six months to complete and encompassed 5,200 interviews with 8-15 year-olds and 16-34 year-olds in 14 countries.

The population in the younger age group generally belong to the Internet generation whereas the 16-34 year-olds are mostly the offsprings of the babies born to the baby boomers, whom social scientists classify as the Boomerang generation. Compared to yesteryear, the kids of today are exposed to the world at a smaller age.

"Kids and young people are growing up younger and appear to be experiencing higher levels of stress in their daily lives," said Saxton.

There was an interesting revelation which I loved to read: India's youth have the greatest perceived sense of wellbeing while Sweden comes second, followed by USA. This word 'percieved' might trigger a sense of hypocrisy, but I believe that perception is reality when it comes to economic progress. The greatest economic depressions have been accompanied by political unrest where the youth had nothing but the story of lost hopes to relate. A President who encourages our people to think and envision is just one of the factors that is aiding a collective mental revolution in getting ignited. The effect of millions of people who are content and positive of their future can change a whole nations' fortunes.

Here's an extract of the results of this study:

The Wellbeing Study's main findings are:

The Future
* Kids in developing countries were more positive about their future than those in developed nations.
-- A majority of 16-34 year-olds in developing nations expected their lives to be more enjoyable in the future, led by China with 84%.
-- More 8-15 year-olds in developing nations expected to have more fun in the future than 8-15 year-olds in developed countries. 83% of Chinese, 69% of South African and 68% of Mexican 8-15 year-olds expected their lives to be more fun, compared to 51% of American, 42% of French and just 30% of German kids.
-- In contrast to developing nations, a majority in every developed country expected to earn less than their parents.
-- Some 79% of Indonesians and 78% of Chinese 16-34 year-olds believed that they will earn more than their parents. Just 17% of Japanese, 27% of Germans and 32% of French thought the same.

Happiness
* Globally, only 43% of 16-34 year-olds asked said they were happy with the way things were. Younger children aged 8-15 were happier, but surprisingly not much more so: 57% on average.
* However, developed nations dragged down the averages. Young people in developing countries were at least twice as likely to feel happy as their counterparts in developed nations.
-- More than 70% of 16-34 year-olds, and 80% of 8-15 year-olds said they were happy in Argentina and Mexico, versus fewer than 30% of 16-34 year-olds and under 50% of 8-15 year-olds in the US and the UK.

Religion
* Young people in the developing world were more religious, and there was a correlation between youth who were actively religious and happiness levels. Over half of 16-34 year-old Indonesians, Brazilians and Indians said they were religious, compared to one in four in the USA and one in 10 in Sweden and Germany.
-- 76% of Japanese, 63% of French and 50% of Swedes asked said they were faithless.
-- 40% of Germans and 35% of Americans described themselves as believing in a higher power, but found traditional religious institutions too rigid.

Stress
* One consistent finding across ages and in every country was the pressure on youth to succeed. Kids and young people are stressing about the same things as adults. More than half of 8-15 year-olds worry about getting a job. By comparison, only 34% were concerned about fitting in at school and only 25% worried about looking cool.
-- 66% of 8-15 year-old Brazilians were worried about their weight while 93% said that looking good was a sign of success.
-- 65% of 16-34 year-olds chose listening to music as their main form of stress relief, with television (48%) their second choice. For younger children, watching television (59%) was slightly more popular than music (58%).

Terror and safety
* Terrorism came just eighth in the list of fears for 16-34 year-olds and tenth in the list of fears for 8-15 year-olds. Parents dying, cancer, AIDS, and robbery were greater fears for both age groups.
* Personal safety is a major issue for young people in the developing world.
-- Kids in Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia were the most fearful about their personal safety (73%, 73% and 69% respectively).
-- The forces of globalization and constant access to the news media create a world that feels less safe to kids and young people in all countries. The more news media young people watched, the less safe they felt.

National patriotism
* Kids from developing nations appear to be more patriotic.
-- 91% of Indian 16-34 year-olds were proud of their country. By contrast only one in three 16-34 year-olds were proud to be German or Japanese (33% and 35% respectively).
-- 63% of Americans asked were proud of their country.

School and bullying
* In 12 out of the 14 countries surveyed more than two thirds of 8-15 year-olds said that getting good grades in school was their top priority.
-- The figures ranged from 88% in South Africa to just 37% in Sweden.
* While bullying happens everywhere, it is more of a problem in the developed world.
-- 56% of kids in the USA and UK said they had been victims of bullying, following by Denmark, France and South Africa on 49%.
However, a developing nation, Argentina, topped the list of kids who had been bullied, with 72%.

New technology
* Digital technology and media is changing kids behavior.
-- Chinese 16-34 year-olds have 22 online friends, and 30% of them said they found it easier to make friends online than in person.
-- More youth in Germany, Japan and Sweden watched news online than on TV.

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Source: MTV Networks