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E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 11:54:59 +1100 I think he makes a lot of sense. I wish we had more people like him trying to bring about a significant change in our country. Also, I like his idea of bringing about a change in the thinking of our children. This is most important because children are innocent and relatively easy to influence. Our children are our nation's future. If there are a substantial number of children who can maintain their strength of character in such a turbulent society, and also be self-reliant rather than just finding faults with everything, I think we would start going in the right direction and progress would be much faster. Vipin
Date sent: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 10:36:41 -0800 It saddens me to read about the economic condition of India and the high inflation that Indians are having to bear, while the government continues to export onions that are selling at Rs 50/kg in the local market. What according to you are the steps that local people should and can take to get the government to stop exporting these products and bring down inflation? I think most Indians know the problems and issues being faced by our country, but not necessarily the solutions. Thank you for the informative article. Gurpreet Narula
Date sent: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 08:32:11 -0500 My comments on the report: If the BJP can realise the problem of rising prices only at the eve of an election and not before, they are not fit to rule the nation. Also, why don't you start an on-line discussion forum on such topics? Readers across the globe can express their opinions on such topics. Mukund
Date sent: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:26:26 -0500 The writer Virendra Kapoor has filled the whole article with his ideas about education in other states like West Bengal and Bihar. I am from Uttar Pradesh, and it is a fact that the education imparted in government institutions, except for extremely few in the state is far worse than the education in the former two states. This author must be joking when he has the gall to criticise other states which are not governed by the BJP.
Date sent: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 15:32:16 EST I like to make a few observations on the recent controversy regarding 'communalising' Indian education. From Sonia Gandhi to Jyoti Basu to all non-BJP parties, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi has come under fire for 'communalising' Indian education for his agenda of teaching ancient Indian culture and ethos as depicted in scriptures like the Vedas, Upanishads, Geeta etc as a part of the school curriculum. Nothing could be more ridiculous. All parties concerned should look at it in a more rational, cool and collective manner with a proper perspective of Indian and world history. No one should be able to appreciate what Dr Joshi is trying to do more than Sonia Gandhi. Italy where Ms Gandhi hails from also has an ancient history, though not quite as old and turbulent as India's. Italy was spared the trauma of slavery and the carnage that India had to go through. These facts of history notwithstanding, there are a few parallels that I might draw to impress upon the relevance and importance of teaching Indian ethos and culture. Let us for a moment take the case of Italy. Over a period of time Italy was converted to Christianity. But this conversion to Christianity did not deprive Italy of its Roman heritage. If the children in Italian schools learn about the Romans, their religions and philosophy, will the modern Italians call it 'communalising' Italian education. As a matter of fact Roman history and culture is taught not only in Italy, but in the entire western world including the USA. Has anyone ever called the education system in the west or the USA 'communal.' Would teaching Latin be called 'communalising' Italian education? Another example is Greece. Greece too has its ancient civilisation. Like Italy, it was converted to Christianity. And the Christians in their religious zeal burnt all the books of Greek wisdom and destroyed everything that had a pagan, non-Christian origin. But now Greek literature, culture and religion is taught not only in Greece but in the entire western world. This has not made western education 'communal.' By becoming Christian, the Greeks did not lose their Greek heritage. On the contrary, today, they are very proud of it. Is teaching Greek just because it is pre-Christian called 'communalising' Greek education? If in the US, were they to introduce teaching native American culture, would it be called 'communalising' American education? Sonia Gandhi was born and brought up as a Catholic in Italy. She should know. She for a change can honestly render her unbiased apolitical opinion on this. Is teaching Roman culture, history and ethos in Italy called 'communalising' Italian education? Is teaching Greek anthology, literature, philosophy and religion in Greece and the west called 'communalising' Greek or western education? Is the study of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato 'communalising' western education? Just because not all Indians today ascribe to Indian ethos and culture does not mean that they can disavow their Indian heritage. There is an old saying dhobi kaa kutta ghar kaa naa ghaat kaa (a washerman's dog belongs neither at home nor to the washing place). Similarly, the fate of those Indians who deny their Indian heritage would be no better than that of a dhobi's dog. It is about time Indians rid themselves of the baggage of their thousand years' slavery; forget the long nightmare -- a thousand year nightmare it was -- and start fresh from where we went into this. Vinod Kumar
Date sent: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 10:23:46 -0500 Indian films usually malign the image of women. There should be some movies on decent working woman, which is the common category in India nowadays, rather that portraying their image only as a sex symbol. It will gather some respect for woman in general, and working women will have to struggle a little less to gain the trust of their employer.
Date sent: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 06:34:28 -0800 This case is absolutely baseless against these heroines since they have acted according to the director's directives as per the contract. They are not responsible for double meaning songs, rather the songs writers should be prosecuted.
Date: Thursday, October 29, 1998 9:57 AM Although all cricket fans are happy that India has won (against Australia in Dhaka), it makes a sad story when we realise that Indian cricket is dependent heavily on this ONE person. What are the other ten doing? Will India win only if SRT plays? Azhar and company must rethink and avoid situations that crop up questions like these. We cannot dream about winning the World Cup with this formula. I don't hesitate to go to the extent of saying that it's graceful to lose a match after all the eleven play -- by play I mean real play -- giving 100 per cent, rather than winning by simply putting the burden on Sachin's shoulder. Ganesh J
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 11:53 PM I have been reading your articles for quite some time now. Your analysis is pretty accurate. I do not know if you noticed that the Indian fielding in the India-Australia match was below par, and the throws very poor. Nobody can expect direct hits every time but the fielders did NOT even get the ball directly or even close to the bails. Mongia was collecting throws from the deep either half pitch or 10-15 feet away from the stumps for majority of the game. Would you agree with that or not? Keep up the good work! Niral
Date: Thursday, October 29, 1998 12:01 AM You guys are doing an excellent job at Rediff. From 3.30 am (NewYork time), you had me hooked on to your web site without an ounce of caffeine in my stream. If you knew me better, you would realise that that itself was one huge achievement for you folks. The server crashes were not so intolerable, or maybe it's because I am in the same profession that I can relate to it better. Keep up the great job and thanks so much for presenting these awesome moments, like todays, with such fun and ardour. May Rediff rule forever.
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 11:17 PM I read your article with interest. While I agree with the points that you made in it, I also would like to point out a few generic problems with commenting on selection policy. I think that selectors are human too and that they make mistakes. The media and the viewing public are quick to pounce on their mistakes, but rarely give them credit when it is due. Let me cite a few examples. When Saurav Ganguly was chosen for the England tour, there were widespread raised eyebrows. Yet, when he performed, not one of us ate humble pie and saluted the selectors for their prescience. Similarly, for quite a while early in his career, Azhar was deemed a poor one day player because he could not step on it when required. Yet, the selectors have persisted with him and his wonderful performance is there to behold. Similarly, his captaincy too was scoffed at but the selectors stuck with him and it has paid off. Has any of us actually applauded the selectors for the above mentioned things? We need to give credit where it is due, failing which, our criticism goes unheeded. We are quick to criticise yet loathe to praise. This is an attitudinal problem. Let us also compare our selectors with those of a few other countries. Remember the number of captains England changes every now and then. In England, a bowler of Dominic Cork's calibre is in and out of the team. In Australia, a player of the calibre of David Hookes was kept out practically forever. In South Africa, even Allan Donald was out of the side for a while. All these are gargantuan blunders. As for Pakistan, the less said, the better. In sum, I think that we should give credit where it is due. After all, the selectors are human too. Moreover, if our selection policy is poor, it is still on par with that of other countries. Bharadhwaj S
Date sent: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 05:36:01 +0530 There is only one hidden agenda. I appreciate the Tatas' decision. It is better to withdraw. Toqueer
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 19:47:38 +0530 I think he's bang on! Hit the nail on its head.
Date sent: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 11:03:09 +0530 Yes, this is a right demand by the Kerala government. Murali
Date sent: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 16:29:17 -0400 That is a step at least to show how concerned the Karnataka government is. But as an entrepreneur, it's not the money or land I would look for. It's what the government would do to remove the bureaucratic hurdles. No point in giving me a million, of which I have to spend half a million as bribes, in getting approvals, in getting electricity, etc etc (the list is too long). Karnataka, AP, Madras ... are you listening? Tapas
Date sent: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 17:06:47 -0700 I was an ex-employee of Wipro. I am really proud that I worked for a good company with good ethics. I have worked in different software companies in India and I still rate Wipro as the best organisation I have ever worked with. I have been telling my friends and other colleagues about the same. I quit Wipro in 1991 and I do not know how the company is doing now, but in the late 80's and early 90's that was the dream company of so many software professionals. Premji is a good businessman with lots of values and ethics. Gorti Brahman Nandam
Date sent: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:53:13 -0500 I really enjoyed this article. Does this company have a web presence? I would like to get in touch with this company, so if you could forward me their contact information, I would really appreciate it.
Date sent: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 15:41:29 -0700 It sucks big time.
Date sent: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 15:22:03 -0300 How much of an animal can one get? If I ever saw a deer or any wildlife animal up close, I would first admire its beauty rather than go and kill it. I thought Tabu was a vegetarian, just thinking that these heroes and heroines wanted to try deer meat makes me sick. I know they will be left alone, but I still hope these so called stars are put behind bars for six years. And what's the point of another post-mortem, when it is proved once that they were shot by them? I bet they will pay their way back on the big screen.
Date sent: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 16:13:30 -0400 People like them should be taught a lesson. Stars and politicians have long thought themselves to be a gift from god to the masses. They have abused the laws of the land for long enough now. If this time these people go scot free, it will again be a mockery of the laws of the land and justice will indeed have been blind. I hope they are not able to put a blind fold of influence and money on the goddess of justice. Rajesh Bhatia
How Readers responded to Darryl D'Monte's recent columns How Readers responded to T V R Shenoy's recent columns
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