Obermann Once More by Matthew Arnold

“The East bow’d low before the blast
In patient deep disdain;
She let the legions thunder past,
And plunged in thought again.”

This is a part of a poem written by Matthew Arnold(24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888), viz. Obermann Once More.

This poem is often used with reference to East by European historians specially when talking about India. The poem’s meaning can be understand by the following lines from the book Struggle for Asia by Francis Low:-

“Just over a hundred years ago the people of Asia had either resolutely sealed themselves off from from all contact with the West or were incapable of defending themselves against Western governments which backed the demands of adventurous European and American traders. The great continent slumbered, immersed either in its own culture and civilization or in its own internal quarrels.”

Asia for long has been a place of struggle for eminent position among Europeans. France, Great Britain and Russia have always tried to have a control over Asia. What can be the reason for this? I don’t know where to start drawing a line. But when I see, Asian countries were far behind their western counterparts when it comes to Industrial Revolution and cross-border trades. These westerners wanted to market their products in Asian market but due to the fear of these ‘barbarians’ we tried to keep aloof. India was an example for this as East India Company, which entered India as traders soon acquired most of the territories and soon India was a British colony. Most of the Asian coutries had had a rich culture and tradition and they always cherished what they had and any kind of interference from the outside must have been considered as a threat to their culture and tradition.

Talking specifically about India, it would be wrong to say that India bowed in front of the Britishers and of course not before resisting them. Since the known history of India, she has been invaded number of times and has absorbed them all. And all those absorbed by her have changed and adapted to the Indian culture or have helped her shape a new culture. But English were different. They were imperialists in their thoughts and actions. They had not come to rule over her but ruin her. This all may be questioned, however, one thing is sure that they were “Different”; not the one who could get adapted to the culture of the soil. So, the resistance is a natural phenomenon that would have taken place and so saying that India bowed in front of them would be wrong and foolish.

Women Empowerment – Challenges and Issues

In the simplest words, empowering the women means creating such an environment in which they can take independent decisions for their personal development and the development of society in general. Empowerment is the process by which the women achieve increased control and participation in decision making which in turn helps to achieve equal basis with men in various spheres – political, economical, social , cultural and civil.

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women but also empowers the state to strive and adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. We have various laws, policies, plans and programmes aimed at women’s advancement in different spheres. However, there exists a wide gap between the goals enunciated in these various forms of development measures and  related mechanisms on the one hand and the situational reality of the status of women in India, on the other. This has been analysed extensively in the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, “Towards Equality”, 1974 and highlighted in the National Perspective Plan for Women, 1988-2000, the Shramshakti Report, 1988 and the “Platform for Action, Five Years After – An Assessment”.

The problem essentially is routed in gender disparity in India. Gender disparity manifests itself in various forms, the most obvious being the trend of continuously declining female ratio in the population in the last few decades. Social stereotyping and violence at the domestic and societal levels are some of the other manifestations. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in parts of the country. The gender disparity can be understood that it exists by looking at the sex ration in India which stands at 933.

The underlying causes of gender inequality are related to social and economic structure, which is based on informal and formal norms and practices. Consequently, the access of women to education, health and productive resources is inadequate. Therefore, they remain largely marginalised, poor and socially excluded. There are various issues which poses myriads of challenges towards the vision of Women Empowerment. Literacy rate among women is very less. This is the major cause. Despite the concept of Gender Budgeting and various special provisions for women in Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan, ie, National Literacy Mission, the ground reality has not changed much. This is one of the foremost reason for women not taking active participation in mainstream economic activities thus making half of Indian Population nearly impotent from economic point of view.

In social field, women are suppressed domestically and do not enjoy respectable position. They are not regarded as intelligent and powerful enough as men. Politically they do not participate and even where they do as voter or representative, mostly they are used as rubber-stamps in the hands of their male relative. They are generally deveoted to household work in India’s patriarchal society. Such underprivilged conditions of women led them to face domestic violence, sexual abuse both at home and work place and improper opportunities for progress in every area of life.

Globalization has presented new challenges for the realization of the goal of women’s equality, the gender impact of which has not been systematically evaluated fully. From the studies that were commissioned by the Dept. of  Women and Child Development, it is evident  that there is a need for reframing of policies for access to employment and quality of employment. Benefits of growing global economy have been unevenly distributed leading to widening of economic disparities leading to feminization of poverty, increased gender inequality, often deteriorating working conditions and unsafe working environment especially in the informal economy and rural areas.

We have endorsed The Mexico Plan of Action (1975), the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (1985), the Beijing Declaration as well as the Platform for Action (1995) and the Outcome Document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Session on Gender Inequality and Development & Peace for the 21st cenury, titled “Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action”.  But still we lag behind. Where are we wrong this needs to be analysed and as the studies say we need to reframe our policies for the development and empowerment of women.

Smarter Planet – Idea and the Involvement – Time to say THANK YOU!

When I joined IBM on 3rd July 2009, the first thing I noticed was the poster of Smarter Planet at the gallery leading to my induction room. Later during induction, we were shown the video advertising Smarter Planet concept and how it has become the buzzword here in IBM. However, when I reached the floor where I work, was surprised that very few people talk about it and very few even doing something about it. I was astonished how people can be mute to such a special and important initiative, a dream if realized would change the earth and the way we live on it.

One thing for sure that people will have to come forward, brainstorm on the ideas and on how to implement this in real world. Unless this happens everything else is just words that sound great but in reality are nothing more than sounds. For achieving the objective, the resilience should be developed in the initiative and more and more people should get involved with the sense of belonging to the cause. We all are working on some project for some client but it is our moral duty, a fundamental duty to make this planet, Our Mother Earth a better place to live on. For years she has provided us all what we have needed and most of the times overused the resources that she provided; now the time has come to return a minuscule amount of what we have used. It is the time to say THANK YOU to her for being there with us all the times we needed her.

A mail to my friends at Infosys

Dear All,

It has been two weeks now after I left Infosys. I have joined IBM and am still in Pune as you all might be knowing. The company has changed, people have changed and so has the culture and environment. I am trying to adapt to the new system. Things are different, processes are different and moreover I didn’t like the intranet. Though it is comprehensive and the knowledge base is marvelous, but at the same time lacks ease of accessibility and is not user friendly – Sparsh and Harmony rock!! Also, there are two blogs portals both running on different versions of Lotus Connections but I think InfyBLOGS running on LiveJournal are fantastic and once we move to WordPress it would be far ahead. Wiki here has a huge database unlike Infosys, where we are still trying to make people believe in Social Media, but still since it is running on Media Wiki, Infosys wiki is great and familiar as we all are used to Wikipedia that also runs on Media Wiki. Blink, the bookmarking site at Infosys is much better than the one running here again on Lotus Connections.

Also, Helpdesk applications (AHD and ServeCentrale in Infosys) are much better there. In short as far as user-friendliness is concerned, Infosys is far ahead than IBM’s w3 (equivalent of Sparsh in Infosys). But still I think knowledge base is better than at Infosys; the work is needed to be done in KSHOP area as KSHOP needs a major revamp – a major cleanup as far as its database is concerned. Also, the process of contribution to KSHOP should be made more stringent and as far as my opinion is concerned, material should go through proper scrutiny in terms of IP, plagiarism and content. Most important I think is content. We have many and most of the articles submitted in KSHOP that are not upto the mark and few are direct copy from online and offline helps available for a product. We need to check this as this is in direct violation of IP laws. Also, if possible most of the contribution should come from senior people like for technical stuff, Technical Architects and above should contribute majorly towards it.

I have lot to say to make KSHOP better. But will stop here as I am diverging from the topic I had started writing the mail for. So, finally I have got my email id changed and you can contact me at palak.mathur@in.ibm.com.

IBM is a strange company with so many managers whom I have to report. I have to report to two managers, rather four. One is my people manager who looks after my allocation, leaves, appraisal etc. The other one is my project manager who looks issues related to project only. Third one is my team lead who is a IT Architect and I have to report to him as an IT Specialist. Fourth one is HR Partner and I am yet to figure out what she is for. Hope that I will understand the organisation here as soon as you all will understand iRace.

Hope to meet someday. Till then good-bye and please keep mailing as I will.

Thank you all for my wonderful days at Infosys!!

Regards,

Palak Mathur

IBM – The Journey Begins

3rd July 2009. A guy walked into Hinjewadi Phase 2, Pune campus with a smile on face and heart filled with excitement and anxiousness. He reached the reception and he saw that he was not the only one. There were many others who had joined a day or two earlier and many who will be joining a new world along with him. He was happy that he was not alone.

A week passed completing the formalities and induction training and on 17th July 2009 he joined his project team. His journey had begun. A journey full of hope and excitement, and he is traveling with the desire to achieve all that he want to. He had read about the company since his school days, when he was only 8 years old. MAINFRAME COMPUTERS, MARK — all were part of his Computer Science syllabus in class IV. A Dream has come true. Now he was also the part of the same group, the same company – International Business Machines or simply IBM.

More has to come his way – My Way!!

The Day Has Come

# The last mail that I sent in Infosys

26^th March 2006 

A guy with a friend (Puneet) stepped out of Karnataka Express at Bangalore City station and headed straight to the bus stand opposite that of station. He was loaded with luggage and carrying it was a pain. But he had something to cheer about. They boarded the bus for Mysore, stopped on a motel for a tea waiting eagerly to reach Mysore. Finally they reached Mysore. Hired an auto for Hootagalli and reached their much awaited destination – Infosys Mysore.  

After a security check, they were allowed to enter the campus. Their first step in and they froze. No word came out of their mouth and when they came back to senses, they could only utter – “WOW!! Is this really India?” Like many others they were mesmerized by the beauty of the campus and for next few months would remain so!!  

 

27th March 2006  

First day in Infosys as Infoscion!!  

 

21st April 2006

Good news for the guy. InfyBLOGS launched for all Infoscions. He was happy, he got a platform to say and utter what was near to his heart.  It was a great platform to network with fellow Infoscions. Puneet suggested the name for the blog – Renaissance!!!  

 

26th July 2006  

Last day in Infosys Mysore  

 

28th July 2006  

First Project – Common Loan Origination System (CLO) for Capital One Auto Finance;

Module- Conversion and Scenario Builder;

Obsession-Scenario Builder  

CLO taught him how to handle tremendous pressure. Sometimes he used to hate it, but always cherished it. When he was a child, his father used to work overnight and on weekends and he and his brother used to think what their father does in office and used to hate it too because working weekends meant no outing of any sort for them. And in CLO I was doing the same. I think some of my father’s genes traveled and entered my body. He loved working like this. 

 

1st September 2009  

Last day in the First Project and First day in next – Real Time Messaging 

 

1st July 2009  

His Last day in Infosys

 

The day has come and I have to bid farewell to Infosys. I never wanted to do this. It has never been easy to bid farewell to anyone anywhere, so I am not going to bid farewell as we all will be here and will meet somewhere, someday. I just hope that our paths will cross and I will wait for that time to arrive.

Three years have passed, to be more precise but not exact – 3 years 3 months and 5 days; the day was 26^th of March 2006 when I, like many others, entered Mysore Campus and like all others was stunned on entering the campus. Infosys mesmerized me!! 27^th March was my date of joining.

 

I have learnt a lot from Infosys and am taking with me cherished moments and memorable experiences that will remain with me till I traverse to the farthest corner of my life.

 

Thank you all for being there!!!

 

And in the end special thanks to CLO-R2 and RTM Teams and all of you in Capital One!!!!

 

Want out paths to cross “yet” again!!

 

Till then, still in love with Scenario Builder!!!

 

Regards,

Palak Mathur

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constitution and Law

I was having a discussion with few of my friends and as the discussion progress my frustration grew so stronger that I had to stand up and say SHUT UP!! I don’t know what we were discussing when suddenly the discussion went on Constitution and Law and I was ashamed on their ignorance about the subject. They were confusing the meanings of the two words. It would have been okay, if my friends would have discussed it normally but their attitude was like “I Know All” kind. We all can’t know everything, there are certain restrictions that we all should be aware of and not ashamed. I can’t score 100%ile in CAT and I know that . But having a wrong attitude not only shows ones unworthiness but also makes you stand stupid.

However, after thinking for a while I realized that there would be many people who might have this confusion. So, here I am trying to explain the two terms and the difference between them in the simplest of the terms. Though it is a vast topic. But I will stick to the explanation of terms and the differences in as simplest form as possible.

Socialist Capitalism – The Way to Follow

I feel exhausted after studying, understanding and writing about The Preamble to the Indian Constitution. Can’t stop thinking about the effort it took and the thought it must have taken towards realizing the dreams into reality or atleast on paper. I can’t believe the nationalist idea which though socialist was so different from socialism that emerged as a response to Industrial Revolution. When Industrial Revolution was taking shape, people believed that Capitalism would provide opportunities for growth of individual both in terms of wealth and personality. But, as we have seen its impact, it turned out to be bad. However I still believe that Capitalism is the best way for growth of individualistic thought, wealth and pesonality and which inturn would lead to the prosperity of the society.

We need to consider certain facts that were the major cause of failure of Capitalism in generating harmony in the society. Most people from the developing country feel and look at Capitalism as an “EVIL”. This is because most of these countries were under bondage or were colonies of a foreign powerful empire. Taking an example of India, our leaders who at one time saw Capitalism as an opportunity and even said that the people bought together and bonded by Industry will never be able to break away and thus will lead to the formation of nation, realized that it won’t be possible under the British rule. This was because British, the most advanced nation of the time didn’t wanted Indian economy to grow and for them undermined Indian economy meant a greater control over resources.

On the other hand if this would not have been the case, then the zamindars and merchant class of India which was still a despot would not have led to the foundation of a strong Capitalist nation. This was realized and thus the leaders started making leeway for Nationalistic thoughts and to reach out to the people with their ideas about a nation. It was necessary that a nation is formed first and then Capitalism is given its place. I liked the idea of Gandhiji on trusteeship of Industry. It is so idealistic for the humans. For that you need self-less people with philanthropic mindset. If Capitalism could be mixed with Gandhian idea, then it would certainly be the best mix of Socialsm and Capitalism. I would like to call it Socialist Capitalism or Gandhian Capitalism- the capitalism that safeguards and works in the interest of the people.

Democratic setup, I think is the best for individual growtth both in terms of wealth and personality and that in turn means Capitalism is best suited in a democratic setup. Democracy provides freedom to individuals (though under guidance of law) to achieve what they want to and that is the whole idea behind Capitalism too. So, if we could adopt a Socialist-Capitalist model then it would be the best thing to happen as Capitalism would create opportunities and Socialism will take care of the interests of the people.

Escape From…Death!!!

Saturday!! What a saturday it was! Everything was happening and happening too very fast!! 

On Saturday, I was carelessly sitting on my bed, laptop was on and was chatting with my cousins and few friends at Vichar Vahak. Everything was lazy as was I. At around 2:30PM, I received a call from my friend Rohit Chauriha asking me to come over his place at Sus Road as they were planning for a few hour trip to Narayanpur. It was raining heavily then and as soon as it stopped I left for Sus Road. 

Yojana – A journal by Publication Division

There are several books and journals that are published byPublication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GOI. One of the journal is Yojana. Yojana is a monthly devoted to socio-economic issues and started its publication in 1957 with Mr. Khuswant Singh as its Chief Editor. The magazine is now published in 13 languages viz. English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Oriya.