The Fallen Maharaja

Save the crashing plane! Air India's plead to save it from the clutches of a mega crash landing has got the Government of India stepping up to show it the light at the end of a mammoth tunnel. The Government's stand to help the airliner only if it restructures its policies needs to be appreciated. I would say it has been a self-made crisis by the airliner. It's been more than a decade that the carrier has been bruising itself repeatedly. The foray of private carriers and the steady increase in the services by foreign carriers added salt to its wound. Country-men take pride while travelling in their own airliners. I haven't seen many feeling totally comfortable having got a ticket of Air India.

Public Sector IT Industry

The worst hit by recession have been the thousands of engineers that the nation has produced over the years working in private companies. Back in 2001-02, it was primarily the IT industry that had to bite the dust, but the current monster has gobbled up many industries. Being the world's largest outsourced market, India had to face the heat too. And Obama's "Bangalore to Buffalo" stance did little to soothe the Indian worries. The collapse of investment banks shut the doors of hundreds of Indian start-ups which mainly were linked to the IT market. It's good to see however Indian giants like TCS and Wipro continue with their business with minimum lay-offs. Adding oil to the fire was the Satyam controversy that has rocked the very foundation of the Indian IT industry and has now over 10k employees holding their breathe to hear the worst news of their lay-off sooner or later.

Both the Same

A week ago, a popular national daily carried a centerfold half-page entry which focused on women's role and position in today's world. It was a very pleasing article that talked about woman's slow but powerful entry into the world of business,sport,media etc. 6 pages away from that centerfold print,deep at the bottom of the page was a victory. Above this victory rested a defeat. The Indian Men's cricket team couldn't defend the T20 WC and had to bow off without much sparkle a couple of days back. And as every newspaper had been carrying out their own survey on what went wrong with the team, this daily also had a half-page article investigating in vain the roots of the defeat. And below this, probably as a reminder to the readers was the Indian Women's cricket team's hard-earned victory that put them in the semi-finals of their World Cup.

Race for the Top Spot

There could be many good things but the best can be only one. With most of the Engineering entrance results out and a few more to follow, it's busy time for the future Engineers and more importantly to the parents. The present decade has seen a very rapid growth in the total number of engineering colleges as well as the quality of education in the country. The growing number of colleges has increased the competition between various colleges and all are trying to put up a very healthy show in terms of infrastructure development, personality development, an increase in the type of courses, etc. A number of private colleges now have better facilities than many good government colleges. Though many private firms have started colleges with a pure business mindset, whatsoever have succeeded both in creating good leaders as well as helping themselves monetarily.

Mera Number Kab Aayega?

4 years prior to graduating from an engineering college, at the time of admission, all parents give the same thought, would this college fetch my beta/beti a decent job offer? Well all daddys and mummys out there, you have one more question to answer now...Would there be a recession 4 years down the line from now? Being from the elite 2008 freshers' batch, I along with many have had the privelage to bear the brunt of ongoing ominous-recession period.People have got so used to lay-offs and firing, that no one is really surprised not to find his/her system at the desk the next morning.

Wicked Pleasure

It was heart-breaking to see Indians bow out without much fight in the ongoing T20 World Cup. No matter what ever were the miscalculations made by the shrewd dude, Dhoni, we no more are the World Champs. Now that's a very bitter pill to swallow to a team that went in as the tournament favourites and I am pretty sure Indians will bounce back. They are not a weak team, it just was not any Indian's day out in England. I still have not fully recovered being a big-time follower of Indian cricket , but at the same time I want a wicked pleasure that I would just love to experience.

Youngistan

What did India see after the fall of the British Raj? The Gandhi Raj! The difference definitely being, people have themselves elected the new Raj time and again over nearly 6 decades. The Congress looked pretty weak a decade back which was the heyday for BJP which had very able leaders and saw itself begng welcomed by the people of India inspite of always holding the tag of Hindutva in the eyes of many. But that was past and we all know what has happened a couple of months ago. BJP and its allies lost another chance to see the brave old man Advani at the supreme post.

Best Chance

Can we ever have a South American or an European nation ruling our beloved sport a.k.a Cricket? Ever since I started passionately following the King of all sports, as every Indian thinks I have only seen the elite 9 ICC member nations playing it. It's so sad to digest the fact that cricket has the 2nd largest audience after football which I am sure is the prime sport in more than 100 nations. The FIFA policies are no where in comparison to what the ICC has. It has encouraged and funded soccer super-powers like Brazil, England etc to open training centers in countries like India and Sri Lanka. You would be surprised to know that Liverpool recently started their talent-tapping center in Pune and ManU is too planning to follow it.

Unity in Agony

Not one, not two. With the constantly increasing number of attacks on the Indians in Oz which have been largely accredited as racially motivated, it was apt for the large Indian population to carry out a peaceful protest against the Oz authorities. While the entire focus was on seeking justice, my eyes caught a very pleasing fact. How often does one see a Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian hand in hand and fight for a common cause in our own land? I can only remember them to be pre-independence days as I read in history while I was in school.

Thumbs Down

We have seen him donning the hat of an ambitious but tough coach of the Indian woman's national hockey team. The never-say-die spirit that has been instigated by this great man in the team sees them to lift the World Champions trophy. Their horrible loss in the first match they play least bothered the King coach as he had faith in his girls. He motivated them, joked with them, danced with them, and saw them lift the trophy and heard the stadium echo with the uproar, Chak De!India!