Female Foeticide: Need to change the mindset of people

Once in our lives, most of us must have heard that a child is a 'gift' from God. Though whatever biology may suggest, it is not an uncommon sight in India to see couples praying to be blessed with a child. But almost half of India, no longer considers it a blessing if that child happens to be a girl. The blessing soon becomes a curse and the 'precious gift' is done away with as soon as possible before extending another demand to God, that of a 'male' child. it is disgusting to know that someone will never feel the thrill of dancing in the first shower of rain, never breathe the air of freedom, will never be the person she could have been, without any fault of hers but only because she was a girl, a woman in the making. Female foeticide is a practice that involves pre-natal sex determination and a subsequent abortion if the sex of the foetus is female. The United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.

The social, cultural and religious fiber of India is pre-dominantly contributing extensively to the secondary status of women. The social structure based on the foundation that the family runs through a male and makes male a precious commodity that needs to be protected and given special status. Another important pillar of the social structure is marriage wherein women are given sub-ordinate status having no say in the running of their life or any control over their body or bodily integrity. Marriage is also considered as a process where by the burden of the father is passed on to the husband for a very high price. The dowry or groom price is so high irrespective of the class structure that generations may have to toil to repay the debts incurred during marriage. All of this has contributed to a low status for women in the society to such an extent that even the birth of a girl child in a family is sought to be avoided. Some of the other reasons are the belief that it is only the son who can perform the last rites, lineage and inheritance runs through the male line, sons will look after parents in old age, men are bread winners etc.

India was the first country to adopt family planning as an official programme to reduce the birthrate. But population of the country is still growing. One of the reasons for the growth of population in India is the desire for a son. Today the sex-determination tests have provided an easy way out to know whether or not a woman will get a son. Each time a woman gets pregnant she can have the sex of the foetus determined and get it aborted if it happens to be a female child. In India the choice is always male child and it is the female only that is unwanted child. Therefore female foeticide is a common practice in a country like India.

In our country a girl is worshiped as a Devi on one hand and denied her existence on the other as if she has no right to live. Time has perhaps come for us to get rid of male chauvinism and treat children as gifts of nature regardless of their gender. We cannot imagine a society in the future where there will be only males and no females. The society will be full of crimes and evils. Only if legislations enacted in this behalf are not sufficient. Orthodox views regarding women need to be changed. Moral education should be given to both girls and boys so that they may understand the difference between right and wrong, justice and injustice and appreciate the values that are essential for human survival in this world. They should also learn to cherish those ideals that enable humans to live with others in peace and harmony, and cooperate with them to make their lives comfortable and meaningful.

Media And The Youth

Youth, what exactly does it mean? Some one said it once that the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity and prosperity of that nation. And I think no one can deny that. In spite of being in the "Information age", where the latest news from any part of the world is accessible to anyone and everyone at the touch of a button, the youth remain seriously misinformed. The only time they bother reading up regarding current affairs is when they need to prepare for CAT or the UPSC. And the percentage of this category of young people is very, very low.

A popular show on a famous youth channel shows how misinformed most youth are on basic things – like what the national song is, or the number of union Territories in India. Most companies who market their products through advertisements on TV, aim the youth as their primary segments, and seem to think that the youth is only obsessed with their looks, fashion, movies, and gossip. The Fair & Lovely Ads, for example, always show that for women to succeed – whether at securing a good match for marriage, impressing guys in general, or to get a job, they need to be beautiful and fair. There are ads that imply for men to be successful in their life, they need to reek of expensive perfumes, zoom around on bikes and cars, and deploy fairness creams. There are very few sensible ads on TV, like the IDEA ads and the Tata Tea Jaago-re campaign, which remind the youth of their capabilities and responsibilities towards the nation, the environment and society in general. These ads have contributed greatly to the cause they represent, which proves that the youth does have some sense of morality, contrary to popular belief.

Movies too, play an important role. For example, the OBC reservation bill, which was a bombshell dropped soon after the release of the movie "Rang De Basanti". The movie inspired the youth of our country to find that lost purpose, and there was a nation-wide protest against reservations. Also, there was a contrary pro-reservation movement. But sadly, due to the everlasting time and resources the politicians possess, and the lack of time with the youth, the movement could not achieve much. Yet, it made the youth realise their power and potential.

The media and the youth together are the most powerful force of change in our country. The youth of the nation have the power to shape the future of the nation. The government definitely takes their opinions seriously, as the future voters of India. With a little focus, organisation and determination, the youth can bring about the change that is required in the country. The media is now a very powerful agent – with a reach to the entire nation. At least one of the means – TV, radio, newspapers and internet is accessible to every Indian. The media, with some amount of responsibility and diligence to report the things that are really important, and the absolute truth, can help the youth in being more aware and bring about change. Both of them have a lot of potential. What is really required is a change in attitude.

The hunger for knowledge ends at the couch

Network expansions, regional language feeds, India- focused programming, expanding markets and a steady growth in advertising volumes— that's the story of the non-fiction, non-news television in India, a genre referred to as 'infotainment' in television jargon. So if you thought that TV in India was just limited to unending saas-bahu sagas and never ending rounds of frivolous breaking news, it's time to think again, for networks like Discovery and National Geographic Channel (NGC) are finally coming of age in India to claim their share of the television pie.

According to PN Vasanti, director, Centre for Media Studies (CMS), Indian television is rapidly transforming as the country is going through a phase of growth and development, and that is serving as a Philip for this genre. "The world is opening up and as India is growing in terms of consumption, growth, economy as well as education, demand for high quality knowledge content is growing. You have to cater to the niche interests that are being created as a result and these channels are doing just that," she says adding that while these channels initially catered to the highly educated niche audience in the metros, they are fast expanding further than that.


The channels too find the trend encouraging. "Cable channels by themselves define programming and with growth in education, awareness, standard of living and evolving demographics and mindsets, unique content channels would most certainly grow in this space," says Rahul Johri, senior VP, Discovery India. According to Ramon Chibb, senior VP, content, NGC and Fox History & Entertainment, "the industry is hugely cluttered and therefore each channel needs to have a distinct identity and offerings to pull the audience. It is this clutter that makes channels like NGC stand out." Also, these channels are primarily targeting the young urban Indian. 

Thinking Indian
One strategy which seems to have worked wonders for these channels is simultaneous Hindi feeds and growth in India based content. This is evident from the fact that apart from launching three new channels earlier this year, Discovery also launched a simultaneous 24-hour feed in Tamil. "Our programming is commentary based and that is where the local language works. We are evaluating other language options as well," says Johri. Chibb concurs, "This (local feeds) is definitely a good penetration strategy and we are evaluating regional feeds too." According to Vasanti, "this is where the growth lies in the future. Even rural India has considerable wealth and people have the hunger to know and absorb as much as possible."

Going local works really well in India. "We have had shows like Paul Merton in India, MasterClass and My City My History recently on the channel that completely focus on the Indian sub-continent. It has worked really well for us. However, India is yet to match the quality of non-fiction programming that gets made in the Western world," says Chibb. However, the channels insist that these shows are not just meant for the Indian audience but also for international distribution. "Indian programming gives us more traction and the audience identifies more with the channel. But a lot of our India shows are also consumed by international audiences. Such as the Shah Rukh Khan series that we did on Discovery Travel & Living was a huge success in South East Asian countries also," says Johri. He also insists that instead of just focusing on Indianised content, the endeavour is to give the viewers a healthy mix of high quality content. In fact, the story of these channels to a certain extent mirrors that of kids and music channels in yester years. "Kids and music channels began feeds in Hindi and started providing a mix of Indian and international programming a few years ago. It was a huge success and you can see the same trend in infotainment as well," says a media expert. 

Statistically speaking
Apart from a steady growth in viewership in the infotainment genre amidst a fall in most others as reflected in TAM media research's data for the last four years, advertising volumes too have been steadily rising for infotainment channels. According to data by AdEX, a division of TAM that looks at the advertising market, the year on year ad volumes has grown by 4%, 15% and 20% in 2008, 2009 and 2010 (January to June). As for viewer ship, the infotainment genre's share in terms of viewership rose by 50% in the last three years, while English entertainment, English news, English movies and even sports saw a decline in viewership.

According to the latest available TAM data, the infotainment genre has 1.2% of the total viewership for Indian television. Amongst the infotainment channels, the 2009 TAM data places Discovery channel at 53%, NGC at 26%, Animal Planet at 17% and Fox History & Entertainment at 5%. 

Industry insiders believe that ad volumes are yet another indicator. "These channels have not been niche for quite sometime now and although they might not be as big as the larger Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs), they are certainly matching ratings of the mid-level GECs. Advertisers across the board are now advertising on these channels," says Punitha Arumugam, CEO of the Madison Media Group. "The language of their programming and their potential audience is universal, which obviously results in advertisers showing keen interest, right from FMCGs to telecom companies," she says. 

Clearly, infotainment can now be certainly considered a force to reckon with in the 134 mn strong Indian TV market. With a rapidly increasing and broadening viewership for infotainment channels, it's not just for the geeks anymore....

3G: What does it mean to us?

If there is one term that is least understood but still continues to generate a lot of buzz, it has to be 3G. I'll demystify this jargon and find out exactly what it is and how we can benefit from it. 3G will also unleash an amazing number of new gadgets that will redefine the way we look at entertainment, education and communication.

3G stands for third generation, a wireless technology that helps to simultaneously transfer voice (telephone calls) and data (broadband Internet). 3G is an evolution of the existing 2G technologies that has limited capabilities, both on the device side and on the network side. The mobile connectivity we currently use runs on 2G network and it's plagued on two accounts. One is the limited network bandwidth which explains why our calls can't go through because of network congestion. The second is extremely lean data bandwidth, which explains why surfing on the mobile phone or the GPRS data card is so pathetically slow.

3G could be our solution. 3G offers a huge bandwidth which means that we no longer have to suffer from congestion. We can now benefit from superior voice quality, higher call connections and lower consumption of battery power.

Networks supporting 3G would have data transfer speeds up to 3 Mbps. This is a huge improvement over the extremely limited 144 Kbps we are used to so far. For example, if you chose to download a Tamil song over the existing setup, it would take you upwards of 10 minutes. But with a 3G connection, you will be done in under 15 seconds. One can take advantage of higher mega pixel cameras that come with the latest phones and upload both photos and videos online or even stream live. Higher bandwidth means easier way to listen to music, watch videos, do social networking and play advanced games.

3G makes video streaming applications such as Live TV, movie downloads, high speed data download possible on mobile phones. Higher bandwidth opens up many possibilities and thereby enables a common user to experience a host of advanced data services like mobile banking and micro finance. Now with such widespread mobile penetration, imagine the wide reach of banking.

A business user using 3G-enabled hand-held devices will be able to download large-sized files quickly; his email capabilities and Internet experience will increase considerably due to higher network speeds, thereby making 3G has immense potential in India. We are nearing 617 million mobile phone users in India and it is expected to double by 2012. Every month, we add over 20 million new users. We continue to be the fastest growing country in the world when it comes to mobile adoption. According to the data, the broadband subscriber base grew 2.67% from 9 million in april to 9.24 million in may 2010. The good news is that in India, there are at least 40 million 3G-enabled phones, which means India already has 5 times Singapore's population as a potential 3G market.

However, due to the government bureaucracy, red tapism and the haggling over the prices, the licenses for 3G have taken far longer than it should. The auction has been completed and the good news is that the private players will join in the fray very soon. When private players like Airtel, Reliance and Idea get into the fray, their marketing blitzkrieg will push adoption levels higher. But that's in the near future. Add to this the government player's long arm of reaching 700 cities, 3G is definite to take off.

For the present, only government players like BSNL and MTNL have been given licenses but their sales has been very disappointing so far. Analysts say that the big players have not marketed the services well.

Countries like Japan and Korea have made 3G a national agenda and have waived the huge license fees. This has drastically increased the adoption levels and the benefits of economy are for everyone to see. Its just a matter of time that India takes that path.

This is the picture which showing video-conferencing with 3G technology

Tackle the problem of alienation

It is necessary to integrate all segments of Indians and all regions of India

Every time Islamic terrorists strike, they invariably claim their action is revenge for the mistreatment of Muslims in India, pointing to the Gujarat carnage that claimed thousands of (mostly Muslim) lives and the destruction of Babri Masjid and so forth. Of course, one can safely say that these terrorists represent no one but themselves and that their complaints are nothing more than the fig leaf of self-justification. It is also questionable whether such acts actually helps the Muslims of India, who become more fearful of reprisal attacks by radical Hindu groups, and who are subject to intense scrutiny by security forces.

But we in India need to ask whether our Muslim (and Dalit, tribal, northeastern) brethren are really treated equally, and the answer is disturbing no. It is for this reason that even as most Muslims in India refuse to join the ranks of the terrorists, there are still enough who are willing to help the terrorists.

Of course, much of the blame for the Muslim community's backwardness also rest with the community itself, particularly it's leadership that refuses to educate the community or let it progress. Their opposition to a modern and secular uniform civil code (which treats all people as equals) is an example of their overwhelming desire to retain their identity at the cost of

progress. The fact is that Muslim need to change their mindset. Education in madrasas and women forced to veil themselves only push the community back into their ghettos instead of letting them to participate in growing prosperity of India.

The real issue is that Indians have to integrate with each other much more. Go across Indian cities and villages and we see our communities living in their own ghettos- Muslims, so-called upper castes, Dalits-while most tribals continue to eke out their subsistence living in the jungles.

We have to take the Pakistani government to task for allowing terrorist training camps on their territory. But these camps have come back to haunt them as terrorism inside Pakistan has become its biggest political problem. We need to get the Pakistani government to cooperate to root out the terrorist camps.

The terrorists chose to strike the city that leads India's growth story, a city whose greatest strength is in realising the dreams of the thousands who throng to her. We need to make sure that in meeting those dreams, we also fulfil the aspirations of those who are a little weaker, a little more marginalised, and have difficulty in articulating their hopes. The biggest threat to India's unity is from the communities and regions that remain economically backward.

While we may not be able to eliminate terrorism completely, let us make it very difficult for those who want to hurt us to get recruits for their cause, to let everyone feel that India has more to offer than the false glory of mistaken martyrdom.

माँ

कब्र की आगोश में जब थक के सो जाती है माँ

तब कही जाके थोडा सुकून पाती है माँ
फिक्र में बच्चो की कुछ ऐसे ही घुल जाती है माँ
नौ जवा होते हुए बूढी नजर आती है माँ
रूह के रिश्तो की ये गहराइया तो देखिये
चोट लगती है हमे और चिल्लाती है माँ
कब जरुरत हो बच्चो को मेरी इतना सोचकर
जागती रहती है आँखें और सो जाती है माँ
घर से जब परदेश जाता है कोई माँ का लाडला
हाथ में लेकर गीता / कुरान दर पे आ जाती है माँ
जब परेशानी में घिर जाते है हम परदेश में
आंशुओ को पोछने ख्वाबो में आ जाती है माँ
चाहे हम खुशिओ में माँ को भूल जाये दोस्तों
जब मुसीबत सर पे आये तो याद आ जाती है माँ
लौटकर सफ़र से जब भी घर आते है हम
डालकर बाहें गले में सर को सहलाती है माँ
शुक्रिया कर ही नहीं सकते कभी उसका अदा
मरते -मरते भी दुआ जीने की दे जाती है माँ
जब तक बच्चा ना आ जाए घर पे यारो
अपनी दोनों पुतलिया चौखट पे रख जाती है माँ
प्यार कहते है किसे और ममता क्या चीज़ है
ये तो उन बच्चो से पूछो जिनकी मर जाती है माँ
कब्र की आगोश में जब थक के सो जाती है माँ
तब कही जाके थोडा सुकून पाती है माँ

Running Smoothly

Running a marathon is like running a
company
You are the CEO
Your mind is the capital
Your heart, lungs, limbs are your employeesYour preparation, your exercise and your
diet are the investment. Injuries to knees and shins may be the potential risks And a high is the dividend. A non-runner will never understand why people run. The vast majority perceive it as painful, tedious and exhausting; most people associated it with punishment. A mischievous schoolboy is often punished for his misbehaviour and asked to run a couple of rounds of the playground.

Then why do so many people run? Most often, people start running to stay in shape and reach an ideal body weight; others to keep their sugar or cholesterol in check. Many, who begin with a view to get only the health benefits, drop out. And those who taste the runners high get hooked on and continue; get addicted and do not like to miss their daily fix.

Many runners have experienced an elevated mood while running. Some have described it as bliss, some say it is euphoria and many have said it is almost orgasmic. It may vary in degree from person to person but the runner's high is felt by most regular runners. This feeling makes them forget their pains, tiredness, worries and tensions and a whole new perspective of life appears. Most sportsperson experience this when performing to their maximum potential.

In addition their are many health benefits: few exercises burn more calories than running,; prevention of bone and muscle loss; increase in human growth hormone-with all its associated benefits; fights ageing; reduces risk of strokes and heart attacks by controlling blood pressure, diabetes and raising good cholesterol; reduces risk of breast cancer; boosts the immune system; and improves overall health by reducing stress. Finally running builds self confidence and creates the "I can do it" feeling.

But running is a double edged sword, which can create problem if you are not careful: potentially damage cartilage of weight bearing joints; raise the heart rate beyond the safety zone. Keep these precautions in mind and always remember: do not over-train. Always consult a doctor first before embarking on a running programme. Consult a coach. Running has a technique: balance, posture, stride, arm movement and foot dynamics.

Adequate water and a balanced diet will help you get the best out of your run. A sports nutritionist will guide you and help maintain a good level of nourishment. Avoid uneven surfaces which could surprise you with potholes and slippery grounds. If you are grossly overweight you can have low impact exercises like swimming and cycling till you reach a weight which is conducive to running. Running with too much weight could be detrimental to the joints and could also put more strain on our heart. Wear good shoes. Ask your coach if your running style demands special shoes. Always warm up and stretch. Running is easier if your flexibility is at an optimum. Weight training is helpful. Stronger muscles mean less injury and more efficiency. Light weight training will keep the protective muscles of your kness and back in good shape.
So in the last i want to conclude that if you want to run the next marathon, it is the time to have started planning. A year is needed to train and prepare you for running the distance. But it's never too late. Get yourself a pair of running shoes and remember:You are the CEO...