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Jul 31, 2006

All About Happiness

On one thing I have beaten my legendary lack of keeping up with things. This is my 100th post and I am still keeping my fingers crossed. Murphy, please forgive me. But I am happy.

And what better way to publicise the Happiness Map of the World. Adrian White, from the UK's University of Leicester, used the responses of 80,000 people worldwide to map out subjective wellbeing.


Map created by Adrian White, Analytic Social Psychologist, University of Leicester (2006)Map and further analysis incorporates data published by UNESCO, the WHO, the New EconomicsFoundation, the Veenhoven Database, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, the CIA, and the UNHuman Development Report.

Happiness, prosperity and education are the three foremost determinants of any nation's happiness levels, the study says. So obviously countries with high GDP, good healthcare and access to good education came up trumps.

I do not have much background on this particular survey but you can test your own happiness here. Whats more you can find a veritable storehouse of articles on happiness at the same place.

I will not replicate all those information here and purport it to be mine. So all of you can read about it in the survey here and more.

Thanks BBC for keeping me alive & ofcourse relatively happy amidst all this outsourcing wave.

Jul 27, 2006

Voyeurism

Picture courtesy www.chinadaily.com.cn

During one of my daily romps around bbc.co.uk I read about a story. And I am not too sure how to react. Hilarious, sacrilegious, ridiculous, ingenious, brilliant or simply voyeuristic.

The story is about little Shiloh, the Namibia born daughter of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. She is the youngest person to have a replica model installed at Madame Tussauds in New York.

Each visitor pay $1 to see little Shiloh along with the sexy model of her mum & dad. Whatever the visitors' pay will go to Unicef. The cause is good but it can't help me feel strange.

Jul 19, 2006

Appan Menon is long dead!

My current affairs consciousness grew up along with the The World This Week. Remember Appan Menon, Surya Gangadharan and slew of respectable journalists who were born again in their electronic avatars.

TWTW was my staple diet every Friday night. It ushered in a new era. An era of the late night gift of Ajit Panja and Jain TVs Saturday night adult fare. TV was about Aap Ki Adalat and Siddhi Baat. We were in midst of a cable tv revolution. And those were exciting times to be an Indian viewer.

Then things started to get formalised. The big players jumped onto the bandwagon. And it was still so far so good. I used to feast on the pre and post election coverage of Star News. TV journalism was in its nascency and thus had some decency.

But no longer. Electronic news channel spawned hither and thither. And TRPs now rule the roost. And TRP is an ugly word for TV just like Box Office is for Films.

Many of those brilliant people who ushered in the TWTW kind of journalism have now faded from public memory. And some of those who have remained have put on different coats. Prannoy Roy is no longer Madhuri Dixit. And we have the Sudha Sadanands and Sagarika Ghoshes. In each interview they claim to take, they end up giving an interview themselves. The person invited is reduced to a passerby.

My hatred for Indian politicians have now been overshadowed by my dislike for the news anchor persons. No wonder I cannot hide the glee watching the government brandishing the Broadcast Media Bill. And no wonder I liked this blog so much - www.warfornews.blogspot.com

Now electronic journalism is more like what Bollywood mimics in every other film - hordes of reporters with camera persons in toe running around looking for the next breaking news. Its al about sensationalism, TRPs and bias.

Appan Menon you are fortunate. You could not have lived through this anyway. And who knows if you were here you would not have been Appan Menon of the TWTW days.

Jul 18, 2006

Amazing India

To all those who can still think and are still in India

Yesterday I couldnt get into Opu's blog. Neither could I do the same with mine. Today I know the answer. Our government, the so-called people's government, has decided to block 18 Blogsites.

Lets look at the composition of the government of India. Manmohan Singh is called a technocrat, Jairam Ramesh is a brilliant economist himself, PC is not bad either and the communications minister Dayanidhi Maran has been educated abroad. If we dig deep we will find more such names who have some education behind them. Lucky us. Unfortunately the same government as decided to block 18 Blogsite because they happen to be used to terrorist outfits for communication. Can one imagine the ludicrousness of the idea.

So I can get into Blogger.com and create posts but cannot go to saltlakeman.blogspot.com to view them. Brilliant.

So in future if a baby is crying what options do I have. I can operate her in a such way that she is left rendered unable to utter any sound or worst still I can kill her. That will help me never to hear her cry.

What choice do we have. None.

Jul 12, 2006

Laluda

ACHIEVER SERIES - 2

My first Achiever generated some debate but the person I am featuring this time will certainly not. A post dedicated to all the dedicated kajer loks
that I have ever known.


I grew up in a typical ekannoborti poribar. Like any other such poribars, ours too had its hordes of kaajer loks. At any given point of time there would be about a couple of Madons and Ganeshes for the oportolla and the archetypal Thakurs and Ganesher Maa for the nichertolla. One among such was Laluda.

Laluda came to our house when he was 11. A time when I was not born. Orphaned very early in life, Laluda was left to fend for himself by his two older brothers. Both were making a decent enough living as gowalas in Basirhat. My grandfather picked him up from there.

An illiterate, Laluda used to do the odd job in the house. From pouring bodnas of water on my oshuddho Thakuma to cleaning the house to attending to all the formaishes of my two pishish. He continued doing this for the next six years of his life till he was about 17.

But Laluda had never come to terms with what he was doing in life. What set him apart from the other kaajer loks was his self esteem and his sensitivity. Thus one day, after many incidents, his pride was finally pricked and he left in a huff.

But no more than a year had passed, Laluda was back. May be, we were more like a habit which he could not live without. Or he had too much love for us? Or did he realise that 6 years as a daily hand had left him ill-equipped for a life outside?

It could possibly be that my grandfather realised it too. During his lifetime has was responsible for changing many lives for the better. A reason for which my Dadu is at the top of my list.This time he helped Laluda learn to drive and get a driver's license. Within a couple of years Laluda was our designated driver.

As a driver Laluda was finally at ease. He now had a skill with which he could differentiate himself from others. Strangely after 5 years Laluda ceased to be our driver but he continued living with us. I realised that he had moved up the value chain and became my Dadu's shadow. Following him around throughout the day and running his errands.

But like all good things this too had its twist. May be, Laluda realised it was coming. Dadu was ageing and with it, so was his poshar. There was hardly any to carry forward his legacy. He became what I call another "Chobi Biswas of Jolsaghar". Neither could he afford a driver or a personal errand boy.

As an aftershock, we moved to a smaller house in Salt Lake. Our poribar was no longer ekannoborti but Laluda moved along with us. But Laluda was no longer drawing a salary.

During all this time I developed a deep affinity for him. Right through my childhood since I gained consciousness Laluda was my most dependable companion. After the birth of my brother when our cot was too small for 4 people I shared the bed with Laluda. He even accompanied us on our vacations.

Finally a couple of years before Dadu's death Laluda decided to move on. He thought he was becoming a burden.

I was in Class VI then. I do not have much details of his life beyond that. Of what little I know he started off with driving matador vans and finally managed to buy his own tempo. Last heard he had graduated to own 2 matadors and was plying his vans between Calcutta and Basirhat. One of the vans was even used to ferry my biyer totto.

He also got married and is blessed with a son and a daughter. He had invited us to his house. I was out of station and could not go. They live in a single room. But it looks larger than it is because of the warmth that its inhabitants exude.

Recently he had called to inform that his son has got a star in Madhyamik. He wants to study science which Laluda can ill afford. However his tuition teachers have waived their fees. And this has given them the courage to acquise to his son's dreams.

During the most difficult times Laluda was always around us. It is why we share a kind of bonding. He was the first to arrive when my Dadu died and held onto the khatiya till the last. A look at him that day made me feel that he had lost a father.

So when I heard of his son's achievement I felt very happy. But I feel bad that I am no longer part of his story. There is a guilt that we could not be of any use during his struggling days. Which is why I feel he is justified when he complains that we do not keep in touch with him.

But his story is moving towards a happy ending. A story that is the exact anti-thesis of another story that I am witnessing.

The story of a woman of roughly the same age who, at one point of time, used to have 3 helping hands around her. It is the same woman for whom Laluda left our house the first time round. She now has to run from post to post for daily subsistence. Her son not having passed Class VII now wanders aimlessly. A story of plentiful waste and sloth.

Both their stories had crossed path. And both are providing me answers to a lot of questions that spring to my mind