Give a Healthy Start to your Day with a #QuakerBowl

Say Good Morning with a #QuakerBowl 

Last Sunday, at JW Marriot, Juhu, I started my day with my Indiblogger friends and Mr. Vikas Khanna (the most eligible bachelor Chef :) . The event was organised by Pepsico for promoting a healthy ingredient of life which has taken a back seat for years. Pepsico has introduced different flavors of Oats under the brand name of Quaker. @QuakerIndia

A #QuakerBowl is good and healthy enough to start your day and a wholesome meal in itself.

The event kicked off with a latest video of Mr. Tahir Shah, Angel and it was fun to see Vineet posing as Mr Tahir. This was followed by warm up session - Ho Ho..HOHOHO

Then a round of quizzes and competitions started, hosted by Mr. Vikas Khanna. He asked various questions about different foods and the winners received nice gift hampers from Pepsico. 

The hall was adorned with stacks of Lays chips and Tropicana juices, giving us a refreshing feeling.

The lunch was nice, but unfortunately doesn’t had any oats dish.

Then, all of us were divided into separate teams and were given many ingredients to make your own recipe with oats. The best dish won the gift hamper. Although girls in our team put in their best efforts but our team lost the contest. The best dish was selected based on taste and presentation.

We had a chance to talk to Mr. Vikas. This was my second event with him. He is a very fun-filled guy and had so many selfy with everyone. His pure Punjabi tone gives a touch of Punjab to the city of Mumbai. We all rolled into laughter when he asked ‘what is it on which Punjabis fight over in weddings?’ Now guess what! He told that it is chicken leg piece… lol…

The event wrapped up with handshakes and goodbyes and a big pack of oats and recipe book to give us and our families a healthy morning.

Thanks #Indiblogger team for organising such a nice event.

Mumbai Marathon 2012 - Save the Girl Child

15^th Jan 2012 – The day of Mumbai Marathon…

In our corporate dream run, we ran with the motto of “Save the Girl Child”.

The preference of male child over a female has been the hallmark of Asian societies for centuries. Even after passing strict laws against prenatal methods of sex determination of fetus and abortion of female unborn child, uneven gender imbalance still persists; predominantly in North, Central and South Asia.

To combat this issue, there is a need to deepen the thinking of the girl child with regard to their infinite roles in society, enhance her self-esteem, inspire and motivate her to reach her full potential and through exposure to diverse careers and positive role models. Raising the status of women is the ultimate solution to let everyone realize that girls are on equal footing to boys.

The more the Asian nations will have adequate social security, the more the parental preference for sons will diminish. For instance, there is a need to make sure girls get an education and we ease the worries of families about old age by offering insurance.

Government should give top priority to develop and promote programs and policies to support the girl child in areas such as inheritance laws, dowries and social protection in old age that reflect as commitment to gender equality.Special supportive measures should be provided for families with no sons, to ensure protection for parents in old age.

Another approach to counterbalance the economics of gender inequality is offering cash or pension benefits to girls and empowering them by providing preferential treatment in health care, housing and employment.

There is also a need to educate the public on the negative effects of the widening demographic gap between girls and boys. The second message should be driven more by fear and shame, by emphasizing the risks associated with skirting the law, from health hazards related to unsafe abortions. Concerted campaigns in newspapers and through NGOs should be started to shape public opinion towards a greater awareness of the meaning and consequences of sex selection.

Female foeticide is a serious issue and all efforts must be made to put an end to it.I believe that our persistent efforts will eventually change people’s mindset and will narrow down this uneven gender imbalance.

Asian Countries: Struggling Hard To Wipe Out Greenhouse Gases

The environmental crisis has made its impact felt in almost all major Asian nations. Ironically, the huge destruction caused to the ecological balance is being justified in name of ensuring developmental progress. For instance, a recent report published by Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) suggests that " diversion of forestland in India during period 2007 to 2011 was 25 per cent of all forestland diverted for development projects in the past thirty years". Such mindless progress has not only ensured elimination of flora and fauna but also ensured dangerous repercussions for human lives. One reason why nations like Japan and India has given way to Tsunamis is that disturbing happenings on earth’s surface have led to rise of disastrous seismic activities inside the Earth; commonly referred as Earth’s crustal deformation.

The worst part of the whole affair is that governments in various Asian countries have not become fully alert to the threats posed by the man's greed. Look how the government has dealt with Ganga Action Plan (GAP) started in 1985. This landmark project started to block the flow of sewage into the river has failed to create better results despite having spent millions in all these years since its inception. We can still notice that sewage water at Kanpur or Allahabad still manages to mix with waters of Ganges all because industrial units have managed to bypass the laws by bribing the officials. Well, it's really pathetic that nations like India are so eager to present an image of being a developed nation and can spend millions to organize Commonwealth Games but the same government ensured that Yamuna dies a slow death. Now this river has virtually turned into a dirty water stream at Delhi.

The situation in neighboring nations like China or Japan is no better. China owns infamous record of having some of the most polluted countries in the world. It's quite a huge challenge for this nation to ensure that environmentally sustainable growth rate does not become an impossible task. One is unaware about the exact picture of environmental crisis in this nation due to censorship of the news but water shortage and water pollution besides loss of huge grasslands are some of the key problems there. Like any developing nation, to ensure industrial progress, China has utterly failed to acknowledge "scale and scope of pollution". On top of it, the nations like India and China are struggling hard to control carbon emission to keep it within the limits and are, in fact, in constant conflict with U.S. and other nations.

Now the problem is that United States, which is responsible for releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide emissions, wants that Asian countries should slow their development but at the same time America is not interested in following an unambiguous approach in this regard itself. As a result, global warming is increasing leading to serious environmental disasters. One of them is melting of thousands of glaciers located in the Himalayan region. No need to imagine that water shortage will be at its peak in South Asian regions once these glaciers become out of sight. As per reports, ”disquieting pattern of glacial retreat across the Himalayas " has ensured " 20 percent reduction in size from 1962 to 2001". The recent reports also confirm that when glaciers melt the “stresses in the crust locally, near the place with ice cover" also increases leading to possibility of earthquakes.

Well, it's time for the Asian giants to ensure that future generations do not pay heavy price for misdeeds of present generation. It's time to save our flora and fauna. Let's remember that if our ancestors worshiped trees, mountains and rivers they did so quite consciously. We need to be in league with same wisdom if we are at all seriously interested in having better days.

RIP Steve: You were crazy enough to change the world and you did it...

STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH…
This is what Steve commenced at Stanford University in 2005 in one of his most quoted speeches.These four words describe his life and character. He was crazy enough to change this whole world.

He left his legacy far beyond apple and is true source for inspiration for the next generation. This genius will be realized in the years to come.

He was a true genius,a genuine competitor, an innovator and a great visionary.

Steve Jobs was a college dropout. He was adopted by a machinist and his wife, an accountant. They supported his early interest in electronics.

He and his friend Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer -- now just called Apple -- in 1976. They stayed at the company until 1985. That year, Steve Wozniak returned to college and Steve Jobs left in a dispute with the chief executive.

Mr. Jobs then formed his own company, called NeXT Computer. He rejoined Apple in 1997 after it bought NeXT. He helped remake Apple from a business that was in bad shape then to one of the most valuable companies in the world today.

Even his first marketing campaign reflect his attitude.
“THINK DIFFERENT”

Steve commented "Apple is for crazy ones, the rebels, the troublemakers, the ones who see things differently. While some may say us as the crazy ones...we are genius."
He refused to go with the flow and made things better, smarter and beautiful.

Obama’s words truly describe Steve ….
“Steve was brave enough to think differently, bold enough to think he could change the world and talented enough to do it.”

RIP Steve...I will always miss you when I will listen to music on my iPod, read books on iPad and talk to my friends on iPhone.

Your life will always be an inspiration to me.

Should caste be included in Indian census?

For the first time since 1931 India is debating whether to include caste in census, many experts say that it can be used for better governance and will help government in implementing its socio-economic development programmes while other say that’s it will divide India on basis of caste and will harm sovereign concept of nation.

The census is the largest single source of a variety of statistical information on different characteristics of the Indian people. The census operation, held once in 10 years, will cover 1.2 billion people — and more — in one single database.

Supporters of caste enumeration argue that caste is an inescapable reality of Indian society and census categories merely reflect existing classifications, and that only the census can provide the figures necessary to map inequality by caste. For social justice, we are made to believe there is no alternative to reservation, and for reservation, no alternative to counting caste.

This caste-based census is nothing but an identity politics in our elections. The politicians who are interested in the caste census data are not as interested in advancing the living standards, as they are in organising them into vote banks. If they are so interested then what were they doing till now, waiting for this Census.

“Demand for caste based census is only the illogical product of quota based politics.”

This Census will give rise to new problems. It has been asserted by the government that this data will not be subjected to analysis. Caste groups and their status differ from region to region. A certain caste in a particular state having the same name can be an upper caste, a backward caste in another state and the most backward in the third state.

In the last 70 years, some caste names have changed, quite a few new ones have emerged, several castes have merged with others or have moved up or down the social hierarchy, and many have become politically active.

Also, such legitimisation of casteism will strengthen the hands of reactionary and obscurantist like khap panchayats.

There is no doubt that stringent affirmative action policies are required to make formal institutions more socially inclusive, but to shackle the census to this agenda betrays a failure to learn from the past or to think imaginatively about the future.

Caste based census is nothing but a ploy to further the segregation of Indians into a myriad of entities which can be relied upon as vote banks.

In the 21st century as the whole world is concerned more and more of development, there is no need for furthering casteism and caste-based vote banking.

We need to change this caste based ugly reality into a better future. Therefore, there is a need for a different approach to remove this caste-based politics and differentiation. Reservation should be given only to those who are socially and economically backward and not to those who belong to a particular caste.

“Census recording of social precedence is a device of colonial domination, designed to undermine as well as to disprove Indian nationhood.”

Let us end this politics of division, of reservation, of favour and corruption now. Let us acknowledge what shameful legacy of caste we Indians have been given by our forefathers and refuse to reenact it through the census. Let us once and for all face it down and bury it.

Social Inequality Threatening India's Economy

Can a country where a third of the population is illiterate be an Information Technology superpower? Can a country where 78 million rural homes have never seen electricity be an economic superpower?

While India’s educated elite are reveling in their new found status on the global stage, inequitable distribution of wealth and opportunities are shaking the very foundation of India’s new economy.

India has one of the fastest widening of social inequalities, where rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer. India is becoming rich land with poor people.













Let me share some of the quivering facts

One-Third of world’s poor is in India. You need only to look out onto the streets, to see the enormous increase in conspicuous consumption by the rich and even the urban upper middle income groups, and also to see side by side how the lives of the poor have become even more vulnerable and precarious.

In the last five years (2004 to 2009) the number of people below the poverty line has increased from 270 million to touch 325 million. That is an increase of 55 million people below the poverty line in five years.

In the last 12 years, India’s economy has grown at an average annual rate of about 7 percent, reducing poverty by 10 percent however about 42 percent of our population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day, most of them without even basic of amenities.

More than one third live on less than a dollar a day, and 80 percent live on less than two dollars a day. Though many of our countrymen were featured in the list of the richest people of the world, we still have more than seventeen million children working as bonded laborers.
India has the higher rates of malnourished children than sub-Saharan Africa, with about 46 percent of Indian children under the age of 3 years suffering from malnutrition.

Undoubtedly, these statistics are not in India’s favor.

The distribution of the benefits of economic expansion tends to be severely unequal. This is for a variety of reasons, in which, of course, the unequal ownership of capital is an important factor. We thus have an odd situation, in which the process of economic development is going ahead at a reasonably fast pace, but where a very large section of the community - indeed, the majority of the community - is not in a position to join in it. A decent society cannot be built on the ruins of hunger, malnutrition, ill health and illiteracy.

The biggest failure in India is social inequality; it takes its toll both directly - in terms of the quality of life - and indirectly - in terms of reducing the economic opportunities that people have.
Let’s come together from all the walks of life and help change such statistics by our noble deeds. Let’s reach out to the underprivileged.

Let’s join hands and raise our voices against malpractice, incompetence, corruption and apathy of most of the administrative systems of our society.

Let’s think beyond the obvious to lend a hand to the poor and needy at the time they need a friend like us.

Lets treat the impoverished with empathy and not sympathy. We all are citizens of India and have equal fundamental duties and rights. Let’s believe and make others believe in the social equality.

And let’s begin by helping our country change those poor statistics

An open letter to Ms. Mayawati

Respected Bahenji,

Hope my letter finds you in the pink of health.
I am addressing this letter to your Excellency in my capacity as a common citizen of UP. I have heard a lot about you but have not met you in person. I have heard that you are the youngest politician to become a chief minister of most popular state of India i.e. Uttar Pradesh. Not only this it’s fourth time you are holding this office. Bahenji, recently we saw a stampede in Krapalu baba's ashram in UP where 37 women and 26 children died. This is certainly shocking and heart wrenching for all of us.

Days after 63 people, all women and children, were killed in a horrific stampede, the blame game has begun on who was responsible.

“There was a police outpost barely 50 meters from the ashram. Yet, when 15,000 people gathered and that too at a scheduled event, there was no attempt to manage the crowd, or bring in reinforcement just a short distance away is the police outpost. All the people who gathered at the ashram had to have passed the outpost. Why didn't the police realize then?" said Swami Mukundanand, spokesperson for Kripalu Maharaj.

But your administration has blamed the ashram.

Clearly there are no regrets on either side.

All the people who died belonged to lower caste and were very poor and no one can compensate loss of a child or a mother ever. Big politicians like Rahul Gandhi visited the village and the same was expected from you but you just issued a press release saying: "The state does not have the money to compensate the victims' families. The emergency fund covers natural calamities, and not tragedies like stampedes."

Are you serious ma’am? This was probably the least you could have done for the victims.

You are the leader of dalit party and works for their upliftment and favour. After spending 2000 crores of rupees for constructing statues of elephants and dalit leaders, including yourself, it’s obvious that state may not have the money to compensate the victims' families.



I have come to know through a news channel that you are geared up to celebrate 25th anniversary of your party next week with pomp and style. I am sure dalit victims of stampede will not be joining that party.

Ma’m this is not where my concerns ends. I am not in a mood of comparison but please have a look what Nitish Kumar and Mr Modi have done for their states.

Bihar, once almost synonymous to despondency, is rising from the ashes of gloom and murkiness. The nearly infamous GDP growth rate of 11.03% that was termed as miracle more than once is not just where the story begins or ends. The dreadful past that saw this north eastern state decelerating, deteriorating and degrading is hard to picture vis-à-vis the present Bihar.

As a result of Modi's elaborate efforts, Gujarat registered a GDP growth rate of over 10% during his first tenure.
As a Chief Minister, Modi concretely put to practice his envisaged Gujarat by means of various yojana. This includes Panchamrut Yojana, a five-pronged strategy for an integrated development of the state, Sujalam Sufalam, a scheme to create a grid of water resources in Gujarat in an innovative step towards water conservation and its appropriate utilization.
He has made Gujarat a new industrial destination. But what about UP?

As Mr. Nitish Kumar rightly said, “If Bihar can change, the whole nation can”. But Ms. Mayawati, we are not asking you to change the nation, we are talking about UP alone. Please do us this favour.

Mam, the huge amount of money which is allotted for building status and Ambedkar parks could have been used for promotion of trade and industries. Rs. 1,000 crores will help wipe out poverty of thousands of people and will provide basic amenities and education.

Thus all in all, happy UPites and more followers for you, just like that of Nitish Kumar and Mr Modi.

Mam, False reputations, like statues, are prone to fall at the slightest ill-wind while true respect and admiration built on rock-solid deeds weather the strongest storms.

UPites have shown faith in you and appointed you as a chief minister for many reasons which are still unfulfilled. We too want our state to be like Gujarat with the highest GDP.
Please don’t take it as joke. There are many youngsters, like myself, who want to see an all pervasive growth of the state, but what have you been doing?

I don’t intend to criticize you or your efforts but please act in more balanced way that can lead to all-round development of our state. We have the potential to grow. We have given this country leaders like Jawahar Lal and Lal Bahadur. We too can develop industrial hubs like that of Bangalore and Mumbai. Only overall development of state will add to your popularity.
We sincerely hope that you will give us the lead and your support in our endeavour.

With Kind regards,
Ankur Mittal