Turning our back to the urban sanitation

The other day I was waiting for the bus in Hyderabad, to see my boss off in the office bus. Four teenagers in their fifteens passed by hand in hand. There was nothing unusual about it to distract us from a serious political topic which we were engrossed in. But suddenly, the persuasive arguments of my

Turning back to pressing need

senile journalist boss could not hold my attention. I was found wavering to a sight leaving my boss clueless with my sudden distraction in the middle of the conversation. But soon after, he too also left agape with the sight. The four boys who passed in front of us had suddenly stopped few meters away. Two of them stood facing towards the busy road and the other two facing squarely opposite locking the buttocks. And two of them who were facing opposite the busy road started peeing. And the game changed and the other two who were providing cover too did urinate. I was just too amazed to say anything seeing the innovative dirty act, as my boss. We were just dumb struck at the sight. Soon after the job is over, the four boys started walking hand in hand as they were before our conversation. My curiosity just dragged me to catch hold of those smart guys. I followed them a bit and tried to be friendly by asking their name in their language to kick up a conversation. Though I knew very little about their language (Telugu), much to my comfort, they were comfortable in Hindi, of course the Hyderabadi variety. Since my intention was to inquire about the smart act, I posed the question straight--whether it was a gully game or something else. At first the teenagers blushed. But, the smartest of the group told me that it is a trick to piss in a busy city like Hyderabad without searching for a urinal when there is an urgent nature's call. And I got back to my boss laughing, pondering-what an idea sir ji. ...But the incident got me thinking. Certainly these boys have found out a smart way to pee in public. And in absence of public urinals, we Indians pee every where. And, in cities men can be found answering the nature's call anywhere. Men out there with their backs towards public, doing the unmentionable things. Roadsides, walls, bus stops, busy intersections-anything goes. And the putrid smell of urine at every busy road tells it all. And even the slender electric polls offer enough space to relieve themselves in a busy side walks for the pedestrians. And ask any one of them, many of them will either balk at you or give the fitting excuse of RED FM advertisement. “Roadside Mein Su Su Karne Walonko line pe leneka, Aj Kal Logon Ke Uppar Tarha Tarha ki pressure hotahai, Apke upar pressure ayega to Aap kya karoge”. The advertisement may seem funny but, it is really pressing issue literally. Though it is quite a norm country over to relieve oneself out in open. And in the country side, it will not even raise a slightest heckle or a single eyebrow if one relieves oneself behind a cover whether it is the bush or a tree, which most of them often do. But the people in a busy city always feel the heat, quite literally. In a crowded city, if one looks for a loo, most often you may not get one even after moving about a kilometer. Even if you find one, it needs guts to enter into it, thanks to stink, shoddy maintenance. And if there is an emergency, one ends up sniffing those urine marked places to relieve one self. And we city dwellers thank ourselves for having an uncanny ability to locate those places in absence of adequate urinals. And strange enough, finding those places is quite easier than finding an urinal.. Sometimes, Malls and showrooms offer you good quality of urinals to their customers. Those who are smart enough can avail the facilities, even if you have little thing to buy from the place. Point to ponder is that it is easy to locate a Mall instead of locating a urinal. And if you happen to be a woman, you have little chance of relieving yourself unless until you reach your destination. Thankfully, God has given women them a larger bladder to hold urine for a longer time than the men. Government has identified 100 percent sanitation goal during 11th Five Year Plan. The goal mainly aims at providing sanitation to all urban dwellers. Since about 36% of urban dwellers don't have access to safe sanitation facilities so far will be the prime target of this mission. Hope while formulating schemes the lawmakers don't turn their back on these pressing issues in an International Year of Sanitation.

Turning our back to the urban sanitation

The other day I was waiting for the bus in Hyderabad, to see my boss off in the office bus. Four teenagers in their fifteens passed by hand in hand. There was nothing unusual about it to distract us from a serious political topic which we were engrossed in. But suddenly, the persuasive arguments of my senile journalist boss could not hold my attention. I was found wavering to a sight leaving my boss clueless with my sudden distraction in the middle of the conversation. But soon after, he too also left agape with the sight. The four boys who passed in front of us had suddenly stopped few meters away. Two of them stood facing towards the busy road and the other two facing squarely opposite locking the buttocks.And two of them who were facing opposite the busy road started peeing. And the game changed and the other two who were providing cover too did urinate. I was just too amazed to say anything seeing the innovative dirty act, as my boss. We were just dumb struck at the sight. Soon after the job is over, the four boys started walking hand in hand as they were before our conversation. My curiosity just dragged me to catch hold of those smart guys. I followed them a bit and tried to be friendly by asking their name in their language to kick up a conversation. Though I knew very little about their language(Telugu), much to my comfort, they were comfortable in Hindi, of course the Hyderabadi variety. Since my intention was to inquire about the smart act, I posed the question straight--whether it was a gully game or something else. At first the teenagers blushed. But, the smartest of the group told me that it is a trick to piss in a busy city like Hyderabad without searching for a urinal when there is an urgent nature's call. And I got back to my boss laughing, pondering,what an idea sir ji. ...But the incident got me thinking. Certainly these boys have found out a smart way to pee in public. And in absence of public urinals, we Indians pee every where. And, in cities men can be found answering the nature's call anywhere. Men out there with their backs towards public, doing the unmentionable things. Roadsides, walls, bus stops, busy intersections-anything goes. And the putrid smell of urine at every busy roads tells it all. And even the slender electric polls offer enough space to relieve themselves in a busy side walks for the pedestrians.And ask any one of them, many of them will either balk at you or give the fitting excuse of RED FM advertisement. “Roadside Mein Su Su Karne Walonko line pe leneka, Aj Kal Logon Ke Uppar Tarha Tarha ki pressure hotahai, Apke upar pressure ayega to Aap kya karoge”. The advertisement may seem funny but, it is really pressing issue literally. Though it is quite a norm country over to relieve oneself out in open. And in the country side, it will not even raise a slightest heckle or a single eyebrow if one relieves oneself behind a bush which most of them often do.But the people in a busy city is always feel the heat, quite literally. In a crowded city, if one looks for a loo, most often you may not get one even after moving about a kilometer. Even if you find one, it needs guts to enter into it, thanks to stink, shoddy maintenance. And if there is an emergency, one ends up sniffing those urine marked places to relieve oneself. And we city dwellers have an uncanny ability to locate those places in absence of adequate urinals. And strange enough, finding those places is quite easier than finding a urinal. And if you happen to be woman you have little chance of relieving yourself unless until you reach your home or office. Sometimes, Malls and showrooms offer you good quality of urinals to their customers. Those who are smart enough can avail the facilities, even if you have little thing to buy from the place. Point to ponder is that it is easy to locate a Mall instead of locating a urinal. And if you happen to be a woman, you have little chance of relieving yourself unless until you reach your destination. Thankfully,God has given women them a larger bladder to hold urine for a longer time than the men.Government has identified 100 percent sanitation goal during 11th FiveYear Plan. The goal mainly aims at providing sanitation to all urban dwellers. Since about 36% of urban dwellers don't have access to safe sanitation facilities so far will be the prime target of this mission.Hope while formulating schemes the lawmakers don't turn their back on these pressing issues in an International Year of Sanitation.

The national shame

We had our hey days in national sports -Hockey. We virtually dominated over others for years in this sports. There was a virtual gold rush for the national sports between 1928 to 1956. We finished at the podium for 11th time. We had an absolute dominance in international scene by winning six Olympic gold medals in a row, till an ignominious exit of Indian Hockey team from 2008 Olympic. We have also won the 1975 World Cup and won the Asian Games gold in 1966 and 1998. But in contrary compare the performances of Indian team you can't help hanging your head in shame. Whether one is a hockey fan or not, but it is really heartening to realize that first time in last 80 years, there will was no Indian Hockey team in Olympics. The game which used to conjure up national consciousness is not even flicker in our national memory these days. Thanks to the sorry state of affair, the game which we call our national game has reduced to a distant cousin of cricket. It is shameful that in last few years the especially in the last six World Cups (since 1986), India have finished 12, 10, 5, 9, 10 and 11. Not to mention that the team failed to qualify for Olympics. And more shameful is that, it is the performance of our hockey team under the aegis of one of our national hero, KPS Gill. He was the one who showed the door to some big names of the game claiming that he is in a process of sanitizing the game and sculpting a golden future for the game. We forgot and forgiven reposing enough faith on a man of credibility which he has shown in his service life. But was the top cop fit to be at the helm? If we go by the records, the rut may have set in earlier for hockey but, the ignominy has been witnessed mostly during the regime of KPS Gill. And what was more killing is that, Gill brazenly refused to step down. And adding insult to the raw wound he even pointed fingers at some of the media houses for making scapegoat out of him, after he was goaded for an explanation. Moreover, we both the thinking and unthinking Indians are much to be blamed for the nadir the national sports has reached. Many of our hockey heroes had warned of such a gloomy future for the game decades back. Some good souls even tried to divert our collective gaze and craze from cricket by making a beautiful movie 'Chak De'. Thanks to the movie, we sang the title song in chorus making it our theme song at every national achievement. But woefully thick-skinned Indian allowed the song to be hijacked by games other than hockey. Just before the Olympics, we witnessed our national shame as we failed to qualify for the Olympics. The team coach, Joaquim Carvalho put in his papers even before many of the Indians even heard the news of the match at Santiago. But the Hockey Federation chief brazenly held his post, even sent out a signal that he is just untouchable, whatever might be the fate of Indian Hockey. Couple of months has elapsed since then, KPS Gill has been hopping from News studio to news studios, claiming that he is no way responsible for the rut that has set in, and rather the game was fated to see this end. With the IHF President insouciance and turning the federation into a fiefdom, the sports lovers just watched in helplessness till the sting exposed the evil nexus in our national sports. Even the former sports minister refused to intervene and burn his fingers. In utter helplessness everybody looked up to rescue the game which they have loved and cheered lustily. And today the Indian Olympic Association stepped in to disband the Indian Hockey Federation and sack its premier. Is it not too late? Why did we allow the national game to remain a hostage to the autocratic whims of a few people? And the result, the national sports is has been left out in the margins of national consciousness.

Fat is no longer feminine, instead flat is. Is it the end of age old Indian beauty?

Fat is no longer feminine, thanks to the size zero trend that is catching up. Courtesy, the current western fashion trends, the fever has also caught our celebrities back home. Since our own voluptuous Kareena toed that trend, an entire generation of youngsters want to be reed thin,notwithstanding the risk. The vicious trend of shedding flesh to look beautiful by turning stick thin is such that we are in a process of redefining beauty sans a healthy body. The lissome lasses our trained eyes adulated all these years will cease to interest us. The curvaceous beauties which we furtively ogled at will never earn our plaudits any longer. For ages we preferred our women with lot of meat on their bones,voluptuous figures, well proportioned with curves where it is required. The women having the prized statistics of 36-24-36 used to attract adjectives which we generally attach to feminine beauty. Evidences are aplenty in temples holes,sculptures from which our beauty takes inspiration from. The literatures and panegyrics of beauty have always gone gaga over women with vital statistics but not without them. Well chiseled, top heavy, not so thin middle portion, figurines with ample love handles have always fired the imagination of feminine beauty lovers. Have a cursory look at the yesteryear heroines; it is hard to find a bamboo stick heroine whom one deems beautiful. There were some slim beauties but they were certainly not without their vital statistics nor can they be called skinny. Rather these yesteryear beauties were in close similarity with the beauties sculpted in temple terraces. Even actresses of nineties, be it Rekha, Sridevi, Madhuriwere well proportioned and curvaceous to be called beautiful. And take any beauty which had 'burnt a thousand hearts, or fired million mutinies' were in the healthier side and certainly no way 'anorexic' as per the current trend. However our age old concept of beauty is in a process of change. An ultrathin size beauty is set to storm our past concept of beauty. The thinner and slimmer version just like our electronic gadgets going to replace our curvaceous past. Since these “itty bitty titty committy” have showcased their 'flat as a pancake figures', and strutted their no stuff, an entire generation of youngsters are dying to fit into this unattainable, Bust size: 31.5 inches (80 cm); Waist size: 23 inches (59 cm); Hip size: 32 inches (82 cm).The size zero craze already taken a few lives, and gained notoriety since the death of Uruguay model Luisel Ramos died after tripping on the ramp.The diseased desire has not ended with this lone casualties, rather an entire new diseased mindset has perpetuated since then. Some good souls who can be called as redeemer of age old beauty have even put a ban on this figure obsession by keeping these models off from international fashion arenas.Many a models have died of this mania but the manic obsession is yet to die among these models.And recently our own celebrities have been struck by this mania. The prized 36-24-36 is now undergoing plastic procedures to achieve a distorted image called lean and ultra thin 'size zero'. Karena was the first such celebrity to join this bandwagon. The actress is believed to be so obsessed with her looks that she has slimmed down to a shocking 48 kgs.And to add to this, she's even proclaimed that she wants to look as thin and stylish as Victoria Beckham. The skinny obsession has a heavy pricetag too as most of us well aware of the news that Kareena Kapoor fainted on the sets of Tashan. Not only Kareena many fashion divas and goddesses are said to have gone wild in their race to get gorgeous, instigating a huge number of young girls endanger their lives trying to emulate their on-screen image.But the question is whether the obsession of fitting into a jeans size of 22 inch waist line will overhaul our age old concept of beauty? Will the mania kick start a range of beauty statistics? Post 'Om Santi Om' there was a concourse of youngsters who went crazy to have a 'six pack'. But thankfully Tashan is not a big hit unlike “Om Santi Om'. Had it been so we would have found our adjectives for beauty overhauled? Instead of heaping panegyrics on those curves in traditional terms we would have been cursing on them. Our adjectives would have been smitties, titty less, chess boards, boners,flatties,beautiful anorexics, hip less heroines, brittle boned beauties,varicose veined lasses, sticks. Thanks to the failure of Tashan, we did not have to overhaul our adjectival armory.

Diagnostic clinical research outsourcing market is booming

After business, knowledge and legal process outsourcing, the Indianindustries are now eying 'diagnostics jobs' outsourcing from othercountries. According to industry experts, a number of hospitals in the US andEurope are outsourcing laboratory and diagnostic tests to India as ithelps in saving cost and money while maintaining quality. The Indiandiagnostics and pathology laboratory business is around USD 864 millionand is growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually, they say. According to FICCI, the size of the global clinical trials market wasnearly USD 10 billion and predicted to have touched by USD 26 billionby 2007. "Diagnostics and lab testing outsourcing is certainly the mostpotential business domain. We are trying to tap available opportunitiesin it," says Dr G S K Velu, Managing Director, Metropolis HealthServices India Ltd. "There is an excellent outsourcing opportunity totest around one million samples a year," he says. The other emerging sector --Clinical Research Outsourcing (CRO) -- isalso witnessing surge in the country. The drug manufacturing units areoutsourcing different phases relating to development of medicine toIndia. In the case of diagnostics, X-rays and other procedures are doneabroad and the reports by experts are written here and sent back, whilein the case of lab tests,the photomicrographs are electronically senthere and the doctors send back the results, says Velu. We plan tooffer tele-pathology services to cater to the needs of foreign clientsfaster, he says adding that countries like Middle East, Srilanka,Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh and UK outsource tests to India. At present,the volume is not very high but the market potential is huge asEuropean countries as also the US are in talks to outsource their workin this area. Metropolis, that provides hospital Laboratory management services andoutsource number of diagnostic related works to India, has number oflabs in Middle East and South-East Asian countries, including Thailand,Indonesia and Vietnam. "We processes more than 10 million sample tests per year and around oneper cent from outsourcing, Velu adds. "There is a great opportunityfor tapping CRO in the nation. The volume of business is expected totouch USD 1-1.5 bn mark by 2010," said Dr Umakanta Sahoo, ManagingDirector, Chiltren International, a global CRO firm. There are as many as 30 Global CROs and 100 companies involved in doingclinical research related jobs in the country. Most of the work comes from US (almost 20 per cent) and Europe (70-80per cent). We undertake approximately 300 studies a year, he says. "It is not the lack of expertise behind outsourcing Clinical Researchrelated jobs. But, availability of manpower and time saving," he says. The sector is also poised to deliver excellent job opportunity andcareer options to research fellows. McKinsey estimated that the IndianCR (clinical research) market will grow to USD 1.5 billion in value by2010. "Research job is not regarded much in our country. We need totrain researchers to meet the growing demands in CRO," he added.Asserting that the country has bouquet of products to offer to foreignclients and attract outsourcing, he said "There is urgent need tomarket our products globally. The government has to start speakingglobally about diagnostics and lab work outsourcing in the same way asinformation technology.

IOA showed Gill the door: is it not too late for national sports?

We had our hey days. There was a virtual gold rush for the nationalsports between 1928 to 1956. We finished at the podium for 11th time. Wehad an absolute dominance in international scene by winning six Olympicgold medals in a row, till an ignominious exit of Indian Hockey team fromOlympics. We have also won the 1975 World Cup and won the Asian Gamesgold in 1966 and 1998. But in contrary compare the performances of Indianteam you can't help hanging your head in shame. Whether one is a hockey fan or not, but it is really heartening torealize that first time in last 80 years, there will be no Indian Hockeyteam in Olympics. The game which used to conjure up nationalconsciousness is not even flicker in our national memory these days.Thanks to the sorry state of affair, the game which we call our nationalgame has reduced to a distant cousin of cricket. It is shameful that in last few years the especially in the last sixWorld Cups (since 1986), India have finished 12, 10, 5, 9, 10 and 11. Notto mention that the team failed to qualify for Olympics. And moreshameful is that, it is the performance of our hockey team under theaegis of one of our national hero, KPS Gill. He was the one who showedthe door to some big names of the game claiming that he is in a processof sanitizing the game and sculpting a golden future for the game. Weforgot and forgiven reposing enough faith on a man of credibility whichhe has shown in his service life. But was the top cop fit to be at thehelm? If we go by the records, the rut may have set in earlier but, theignominy has been witnessed mostly during the regime of KPS Gill. Andwhat was more killing is that, Gill brazenly refuses to step down. Andadding insult to the raw wound he even points fingers at some of themedia houses for making scapegoat out of him, after he was goaded for anexplanation. Moreover, we both the thinking and unthinking Indians are much to beblamed for the nadir the national sports has reached. Many of our hockeyheroes had warned of such a gloomy future for the game decades back. Somegood souls even tried to divert our collective gaze and craze fromcricket by making a beautiful movie 'Chak De'. Thanks to the movie, wesang the title song in chorus making it our theme song at every nationalachievement. But woefully thick-skinned Indian allowed the song behijacked by games other than hockey. More than a month ago we witnessed our national shame as we failed toqualify for the Olympics. The team coach, Joaquim Carvalho put in hispapers even before many of the Indians even heard the news of the matchat Santiago. But the Hockey Federation chief brazenly held his post, evensent out a signal that he is just untouchable, whatever might be thefate of Indian Hockey. About two months have elapsed since then, KPS Gillhas been hopping from News studio to news studios, claiming that he is noway responsible for the rut that has set in, rather the game was fated tosee this end. With the IHF President insouciance and turning thefederation into a fiefdom, the sports lovers just watched in helplessnesstill the sting exposed the evil nexus in our national sports. Even theformer sports minister refused to intervene and burn his fingers. Inutter helplessness everybody looked up to rescue the game which they haveloved and cheered lustily. And today the Indian Olympic Associationstepped in to disband the Indian Hockey Federation and sack its premier.Is it not too late? Why did we allow the national game to remain ahostage to the autocratic whims of a few people?

Let Us Make News

Many believe that every one in our society is not a newsmaker. The focus is shifting from issues to individuals, necessities to luxuries – as if in our quest for something new, we must forget our past!For me everyone is a newsmaker. Every one is worth getting attention and their share of stardom.Whether it’s a graffiti in a public loo, an advertisement behind an auto rickshaw curtain, a neglected dog in JNU, a school under the open sky, an “unlucky kid” sleeping over a film poster near Char Minar, a tender hand weaving a designer dress, an untold story that you saw in you dream.It could be a prostitute waiting for a client, the tradition of gifting a daughter for flesh trade, a barren land, a hawker that you met while returning from college, a distant light post that forces you to think about it in the midnight, a mother holding her baby and standing in three feet water in a flooded village, even a heap of ashes after a terror blast, a sexy poster over a Mysore hill and a chaste toothpaste in your bathroom … the list could be anything under the sky.The blog will try to give you a fresh view on life, break the information overdose, and would like you to introspect, think different with HUMANE FACE.Love you all. Join me…