"The Zoya Factor" - A must read

The Zoya Factor- Ms. Anuja Chauhan’s first book, forges new territory. Its audacious, irreverent and fun!!! Popular fiction in India is still a myth, the genre is limited the IIT-IIM type growing-up Pains sagas, made popular by engineers and aspirants. Women oriented literature is not even being whispered about. Thus, this book comes as a pleasant and agreeable surprise. Its is lie-on-floor-legs- up- in- air-laugh-uproariously funny. As soon as I read it, I wanted to read it again. I have talked and continue to talk about this book to whoever would listen.
From Karol Bagh Monday market to Rohtak road and alu tikki burgers, in a first- this book is full of recognizable and relatable characters, locations, desi nomenclature and local gaalis.
Ms. Chauhan combines romance, cricketers and India’s obsession with superstition and achieves a highly entertaining mix. But her real accomplishment is her heroine- smart, funny, gutsy and unapologetic, Zoya is no simpering ‘Bhartiya Naari’. Ms. Chauhan has truly struck a chord with modern Indian women.
The story flows with a fast pace and without any of the qualifying editorials that Indian authors are so fond of. One liners like ‘ Pass the butter, chutiye’ and ‘your eyes are the colour of complan with advanced energy boosters’, and the ‘lust and loath meter’ make this book unputdownable.
A special thanks to Ms. Saxena who recommended the book and requested the acknowledgment of the same in writing. :)

Nostalgia for the future

As children we had such wealth of choices and options. We could be doctors, actors, presidents, superheroes, saviours of mankind. We were courageous, fearless and we were going to change the world. We were invincible, infallible. We looked at future with enthusiasm, not wariness. The uncertainty of it was exciting, hopeful and inviting. Optimism was not a choice but a matter of course. We hadn’t yet learned what naïve meant, opinions were meant to be voiced and peace still a viable option. Our dreams were our goals, our wildest imaginations achievable. We aimed high and hoped higher still.
But we grew up and made decisions those choices got fewer and smaller. We taught ourselves to be pragmatic and practical. We listened when they told us to prioritse and analyse. We traded in idealism for fear of being disillusioned. Happiness became a relative term. We qualified and quantified achievements.

I miss the future of the past.

Taliban reversed

In the high fashion streets of Paris, Burqas and Niqabs are apparently not in style. Mr. Sarkozy, taking cue from the makeover shows has appointed himself the Fashion police. And with appropriate Gallic drama, he has denounced them as representative of female subservience and has proposed a ban. This is his contribution towards female emancipation. Of course, everyone knows truly liberated women are anorexic Parisian models in tiny bikinis being objectified by men. Mr. Sarkozy’s brand of liberalization, no pun intended, is very fundamentalist indeed .
This laughable logic illustrates an alarming trend towards religious intolerance and xenophobia in western European countries. It also brings fore the western prejudices and the misplaced interpretation of feminine liberation, using participation in public life as a, several Islamic cultures have been at the forefront much ahead of France. There has been no female head of state in France, while Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Turkey have all have had female heads of state, even Iran has had a female vice-president and am sure it come surprising shock to Mr. Sarkozy she carried on her duties, wearing a Hijab. Western culture has been responsible for fostering unhealthy stereotypes for women, the gender roles are much more firmly entrenched. But all these arguments are just corollary to the basic fact that the decision to wear a burqa or not should be in the end an individual choice. Mr. Sarkozy may be choosing to travel an opposite path as the Taliban but he is on the same road.

An ode to Mr. M: Recipient of my first bribe

Mr. M is an administrative assistant at my alma- mater, anyone familiar with University of Delhi, understands it’s a position of tremendous and awesome power. Some choose to use this for good and others….well are like Mr. M. He has elevated bureaucracy and red-tapism to an art and a science. If it can be delayed or made more difficult….he will do it!! He made any paperwork during my graduation an ordeal of biblical proportions. His crafty machinations will ensure that you are always a document too short and a day too late. Its a game only he knows all the rules, armed with a stapler and a pen he is a force to be reckoned with. He makes a 10 feet trip to the Principal’s office for a signature seems like a pilgrimage and himself a martyr to your cause. He is never crass enough to ask money upfront…oh no that would be so unsophisticated, he humms and Haws and delays for as long as possible. He understands human psychology better than Freud, we become more primed to pay once we have experienced the inconvenience, annoyance and obstacles he can create. And then we pay with a smile on our faces. I paid Rs. 100 for loss of an ID card issued 6 years ago and which expired 4 years ago to receive my degree. I can only marvel at the crafty brain to have invented such a plausible sounding reason. Bullshit..but plausible.
I could not have picked a more worthy recipient for the first bribe I have ever paid. (Yes…I can come down from my high horse long enough to admit to that). Well, we can also say that government has subsidized over 5 years of my Higher education so in return I am supplementing the income of an important spoke in its slow and tedious bureaucratic wheel.

Why we need Private Universities

The debate regarding private universities has reached a fevered pitch, most people of my milieu regard it as a fall out of government’s infrastructural deficiencies and the last refuge for student who missed the merit lists. The fear is that higher education in India will turn in to another business proposition and will only be available to those who can afford it. Thus, apparently defeating the socialist objectives which the Indian republic has set for itself. There are also serious doubts regarding the capabilities and the quality of students and teachers . Both of these concerns are rational and till an extent justified. However, I firmly believe that private universities have a vital role to play in the Indian education system, free from the political influences and the encumbrance of red-tapism they can fill the gaping hole in higher studies. Certainly these universities are susceptible to corruption, and that is the area which UGC should concern itself and extricate itself from the administrative drudgery . These are business enterprises , law of demand and supply requires them to justify their asking price through quality of their output, though it may not seem so at the moment but as more players enter the market playing field will be leveled to the distinct advantage of the students.
Barring the IIT’s and IIM’s the Government colleges are overburdened, over stretched and strapped for money, the success of students stand testament to their own ability of performing despite the teaching infrastructure rather than because of it. The fees are ridiculously low, the model of subsidizing the education heavily is crippling the system. There is a glaring lack of basic physical infrastructure and a complete lack of performance measures for teachers. Changes to syllabi are slow , tedious and always a year too late. Investments in research is dismally low and this set up is primarily responsible for focus shifting away from pure sciences to more ‘bankable’ courses. Teachers and Students alike are giving these courses the go by, and this is evident in lack of patents filed by Indian scientists and companies.