When a
country adopts the open market
economy it gives its approval for
cut throat competition in all
spheres of business activity. The
large fishes will swallow the
smaller / weaker fishes and
ultimately only the whales and
sharks will be left. When these
whales and sharks do not find
adequate number of smaller fishes to
eat they will change their feeding
habits and start feeding on other
things.
Countries adopting open market
economy must be ready to be governed
by large business houses. The large
business houses will first finish
off the smaller businesses and then
they will show their teeth to the
government and the people. The
interests of these large business
house will dictate government
policies and ultimately govern
people's lives. They will also
dictate how much money an average
family can save for the rainy day.
On the social front, with the coming
of the foreign media, there is a
rush to adopt new new ways of life.
This is often labeled as "freedom"
by the younger generations. As we
all know complete freedom is
complete anarchy and chaos. That is
what we see in the so called "high
society" of cities like Mumbai.
There the younger generation
participate in wild parties, often
consuming drugs, going on blind
dates, living in together and trying
to ape what they consider "the
western way of life". All these
horrid things are clothed in the
garb of "freedom". Freedom from
what? From your good old values?
From your sanskaar? From your
morals? Or is it freedom from your
conscience?
Both the above are potential threats
for the society of a country like
India. While we develop in an open
economy we have to ensure that we
adopt good things and not the filth.
We have to learn from the experience
of others and steer our way
properly. Perhaps for this every
parent is responsible. Parents have
to ensure they develop good rapport
with their kids and keep their
mental software free from the
western viruses, adwares, spywares
and trojan horses. - Rajesh
Chaubey - Jan. 11, 2006
There is no way you can say a
particular culture is better than
the other. Most of the times few
self-proclaimed proponent Hinduism
or Muslim Faith try to portray
western culture as source of all the
evils of present day society. When
they run out or argument, they try
to take shelter in words "good old
values", "sanskaar" etc.
By all means western culture are
much more civilized than these
typical society. Any one who has
traveled west will certify the
claim. Blind dates, living in
together or wearing revealing cloths
are no crimes but burning woman for
the purpose of dowry is and killing
people in the name of religion is.
There are 1000s of the thing they
know better and that is the reason
they are developed society. Most
important out of therm - every work
or individual are important and
should be respected.
For Live Cricket - Does it matter?
Many Indian will save lots of time
and energy will be diverted to more
productive things. - Om Kumar -
Jan. 11, 2006
On
March 17, 2004, Ten Sports was given
a directive by the Supreme Court to
provide live telecast of cricket
matches between India and Pakistan
to Doordarshan. DD had to deposit Rs
50 Crore as damages. For the current
series of matches, DD was offered a
choice of either paying Ten Sports
Rs 25 crore for a late signal with
the Ten Sports logo and ads or pay
Rs 170 crore for a live signal
without the logo or the ads. Once
again, SC has brought the two
parties on an agreement, in which
Ten Sports will provide 90 minutes
of highlights to Prasar Bharti free
of cost.
Those who cannot afford cable
connection (and they are the
majority), should not be deprived of
the fun and entertainment, true, but
let us also see this case from
another point of view. Why does a
Ranji Trophy match never get TV
channels fighting to telecast it? Or
sports other than cricket, for that
matter? Is it just the private media
who has to be blamed, not the DD and
the viewers themselves? Recently, I
came across the news of Bihar's
state cricket team players going on
a hunger strike, blaming the
government of its apathy towards
their plea.
Let me ask, provided a choice of
watching a match on a private
channel or Doordarshan, will most of
us not prefer the former? This is
not limited to media. Public sector,
with a few exceptions, is always
challenged by the competition from
the private companies. PSUs are
being sold to this competition and
probably, 'pressure' from rich
industrialists. This is not good for
the country, no doubt. But, the
question is, why are they running in
loss/not making much profit? The
case is a bit different with small
scale industries or public welfare
organisations. I can understand the
threat in their case. So, here lies
in my opinion, the actual problem
and hence, the solution. - Kumod
Jha - Jan. 11, 2006
Om
ji my comments were not meant to be
a criticism of the western society.
There are good things in that
society too. I only expressed
anxiety over the way our society is
lapping up the filth of the western
society.
I do not know where you grew up or
where you live, but if you live in
the west and have grownup kids you
will definitely appreciate what I
meant when I wrote my comment. If
your kids are small wait awhile. The
days of anxiety are coming. In many
cases the enthusiasm of a developed
society bursts like a bubble when
kids adopt "developed" ways. When I
appealed to parents to keep
communication channels wide open
with kids, it was not only for
Indian parents but for all parents.
Indian society has its good points.
Here marriages last. Kids are
brought up in close knit families.
There is more cohesiveness and
affection in families. India does
not have a significant problem of
unwed high school mothers, broken
marriages, children of broken
marriages living in homes, kids
living in the same city away from
parents so that their friends can
come and go without interference
from nosey elders, un-cared for
children growing up to become weird
adults, materialism overshadowing
spiritualism to create a large
percentage of selfish people for
whom money is everything. In a nut
shell the Indian society is still
much more closely knit and far
happier than the western society.
The instances of bride burning are
isolated criminal acts of the scum
of the society but percentage-wise
they do not add up to any
significant percentage. Killing
people in the name of religion is
bad whether it happens in Gujarat,
Iraq or Afghanistan. It must be
stopped immediately.
My experience is that, in most
cases, too much money or pursuit of
money becomes inversely proportional
to happiness. Sant Kabir's famous
doha in this regard holds true even
today. However, pockets of the
Indian society are blindly aping the
west. Greed for more and more is
shining in Indian eyes. The pursuit
of more and more wealth leaves less
and less time for family. Both
spouses get busy making money. Good
family time goes further and further
down on the priority list. Kids grow
up alone. Learn about existence from
equally ill-informed friends. This
leads to the fatal attraction
towards the scummy part of the
western culture. They consider it
fashionable to talk in the lingo of
the truck drivers and trailer
dwellers of the west. "My old man"
becomes more fashionable than "My
father". Discos and night clubs
become essential parts of life. This
disease is at present limited to
pockets in the metropolitan cities
but it can spread if Indian parents
do not act now.
Coming back to cricket, it is a pity
that most of the people who are most
emotionally attached to their
country, the players and the game
will not be able to view the live
telecast. It is all about business,
money and greed, as I pointed out.
Greed can only lead to misery and
there is no end to greed. In today's
greed crazed society greedy business
men decide what games people watch,
how they live, how much they earn,
what taxes they pay, what they can
save etc, etc. That disease too is
catching up here. As has been
pointed out several times by the
writer of the original article,
Indians must move ahead on this path
of globalization with their eyes
wide open and head lights on. The
pot holes have to be avoided. If we
rush forward in greed the old saying
will apply "Fools rush in where
angels fear to tread." - Rajesh
Chaubey - Jan. 11, 2006
Mr.
Om's comment reveals his age. -
Vinay Singh, USA - Jan. 11, 2006
I
read the news and it was really
unfortunate for millions of viewers
who like to enjoy one day Cricket. I
remember the days when I was in
Bihar and left everything for the
next day, or finished things a day
before so I could have plenty of
time to watch a one day match. I am
not against commercialization or
selling things to make money, but
there should be limits. Though I do
not watch any games anymore, I do
not like to be glued to the TV and
waste time. The other point is I do
not like to pay money to watch TV.
You have to pay for a bunch of
channels you do not like because
they come with the package. I
remember there was a time when
players were hardly making any money
and nowadays they make so much money
they are fighting to get selected. A
recent example is Saurav Ganguly
whose not getting selected caused
such an uproar by WB and all parties
hailing from West Bengal. At one
time, I was enthralled by Cricket,
and now I detest games and sports -
especially Cricket and its player.
Sachin Tendulkar was given god-like
status, and a coin was issued in his
name. What a shame for a nation when
half of its citizens are sleeping
without food, but it has money to
spend for this junk/stupid game.
I agree with Aarcee: sooner or later
we will have Adult book and video
stores right in our neighborhoods.
It will not have a direct effect on
me, as I do not live in India, but
at the same time, I don’t want to
close my eyes to what is harmful to
my native land and countrymen. The
time is near when we will have strip
clubs in every town as we are
competing with the West. In the
words of Om Kumar, western culture
is better but it does not mean that
we should accept things that are
bad. I agree that burning women,
killing fetuses, mass murder, and
communal violence are bad, but at
the same time, we are still Indians
and we should not forget our Indian
Values.
Accepting good things from the west
is always welcome. Learning how to
live peacefully, acknowledge Science
and Technology, and respect for
human beings are good, but it does
not mean we should allow people
living together without marriage,
unwed mothers, older parents living
in elderly facilities and the like.
It makes me so sad that older people
who have kids will not be brought
home by them to live. They argue
that it will kill their privacy.
What kind of privacy do you want?
What is so important that you leave
others to care for your own parents?
It is a shame. - S. M. Khurshid
Anwar, New York, USA - Jan. 12, 2005
It
sounds shocking that the cricket
match not being telecast on
Doordarshan would affect millions of
cricket lovers across India. It
looks like the capitalist attitude
but let it be. It just means that we
have to pay for "our choice" and
"nothing comes for free".
Doordarshan had the choice to
telecast the matches with some
conditions but it didn't agree to
the conditions put forward. I am
sure that if Doordarshan had
telecast the matches, they would
have made profit upon investment.
Why don't they compete with private
channels in the open market? How
long they keep promising to serve
common people and keep serving the
worse service? The private channels
are doing good because they have
freshness and novelty in their
approach and give something new. If
anyone has a choice, they would
prefer private channels than
Doordarshan. It is an era of
competition and if you don't
compete, you are thrown away. We
have to leave the mentality that
government and organisations will
help us. You will have to earn it
and so capitalism is good in some
way. We have to come out of
"government employee attitude". No
work no salary, period. No profit no
perk.
Coming to think of "working mom" and
"day care center", it should not be
taken in negative way. It is
progressive because then the woman
of family is not dependent upon man
of the family. I have noticed that
in many families women have better
talents than men but woman has to
give career up after marriage. I
just want to ask "why". Woman can
work and still take care of children
but how many men do the same?
Progressiveness comes from the
attitude and I can see the kind of
attitude people have here. Anything
progressive and logical are
considered "immoral" and "not our
sanskar". It is high time that men
and women take equal responsibility
for a family. It will always be that
the money maker will rule. Even in a
family, the earning person dominate.
So, it is a time to change the
attitude and work to progress. -
Sanjeev Kumar - Jan. 12, 2005
Sanjeev ji you are barking up the
wrong pole. I never said that women
should not work. I just said and I
quote "The pursuit of more and more
wealth leaves less and less time for
family." I have nothing against both
spouses working. I only made the
point that as distractions and
allurements increase in our society
children need more attention from
their parents. I wrote and I again I
quote "When I appealed to parents to
keep communication channels wide
open with kids, it was not only for
Indian parents but for all parents."
My point was limited to the role of
parents in shaping the personalities
of their kids in a fast changing
world. If parents can work and still
find time to communicate, chat and
play with their kids so that they
have a strong influence on how their
kids shape up, what can be better. I
am a very progressive minded person
but I have clear definitions of
desirable progressiveness. For me
attending wild parties, consuming
drugs, going on blind dates, living
in together, producing kids before
marriage are not progressive ideas,
they are regressive for the society.
A brain storming session is to be
conducted by people so as to what
they consider progressive and what
can be considered regressive and
then they can mould their kids
accordingly. Remember we all will
get back what we sow. - Rajesh
Chaubey - Jan. 12, 2005
Rajeshji, I couldn't have said any
better. You, as well as Anwarji are
absolutely right. There is a clear
distinction between being a
'progressive' and being a blind
follower of everything the West
does. Drugs, teen pregnancy, high
divorce rate, extra-marital affairs,
abortion in the name of women's lib
and freedom, eating junk food,
extreme use of alcohol, acting like
a rap star or behaving like a
trailer-trash may be considered cool
by a certain young, misguided group
of Indians, it's certainly not
something a country like America is
proud of.
I'm glad there are private TV
channels in India now that were not
there 20-25 years ago. But the kind
of shows are on the Indian TV
channels now, barring a few
exceptions, is enough to put you to
shame if your are 35+ or; as in many
cases, enough to corrupt and
brainwash your mind if your are
twenty-something or lower.
It never ceases to amaze me how some
people quickly turn the topic to
bride-burning, dowry, oppression of
women, and Sati system in India
anytime you criticize west. That's
their line of defense as if two
wrongs make one right!
Interestingly, the same folks who
talk about these Indian 'social
ills' are in most cases the first
ones to exploit their would-be
in-laws to the hilt when it comes to
getting married. - Anil Kumar -
Jan. 12, 2006 |
