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I am writing for "The viewspaper" columns so I will publish my articles in an unedited form here. So please keep reading my blog. Thanks for your support.

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Sathiya velan subramaniyam

Do looks really matter?

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com

I came across this fantastic article in “The New York Times” whether looks do matter in becoming successful in life. The article convincing says that looks do matter in landing a plump opportunity in career or social life. I also agree with the article on the major perceptive. Excerpts from the article

On a very basic level, judging people by appearance means putting them quickly into impersonal categories, much like deciding whether an animal is a dog or a cat. “Stereotypes are seen as a necessary mechanism for making sense of information,” said David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University. “If we look at a chair, we can categorize it quickly even though there are many different kinds of chairs out there.”

If we step out of our home and observe the world outside, we find most of the successful people who are interviewed or celebrated are tend to be good looking. So what makes these good looking people successful? It seems good looking tend to gregarious because even if they don’t want to mingle around with others but people around them usually recognize their appearance and give space for their actions. It obviously true in any case, we always wanted to speak to good looking people get others attraction or people usually tend not to dislike handsome or beautiful people’s attitudes.

An example to elaborate on this point, assuming that kollywood hero “Kamal Hasan” and comedian “Vadivelu” are not celebrities. If these two people are also part of a five member group and this group now actually brain storming on some project. It is for sure in majority of the case that handsome Kamal will get more attention on his point or witty jokes than our real joker Vadivelu. Sad right! This is how the world works and we have to live with the stereotypes.

The debate of stereotypes became very popular after not so good looking and 47 year old “Susan Boyle” won millions of hearts in singing “I dreamed a dream” in Britain’s got talent. When she first appeared on the stage our famous judge Simon Cowell showed some bad grimaces for her age and aspirations and also the entire crowd was cynical of her ability. But she defied all the cynicism and emerged as one of the best singers ever sang in the Britain’s got talent. Yup! People overlook the hidden talent. I have posted the youtube video link (Since embed code is not available) also for reference.

It was a lesson learnt for millions of people who watched the video on youtube that sometimes we do need to break our stereotypes and gauge people based on their talent. Even there was some kind of cynicism and stereotypes attached when president Obama started his campaign to the white house. We all knew how well he was able to flare. I want to learn his skills of defying the stereotypes. Is anybody in my boat too?

NYT article :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26looks.html?scp=7&sq=susan%20boyle&st=cse

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

All about Girls

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com

I neither have female friends nor girl friends so I don’t care about what girls think about me. But I do really want to have either of that, what to do I am not gifted to woo girls I think (lol). Anyway, I wanna write about girls too. Einstein has once said “Imagination is more important than knowledge” so I am going to contemplate having girl friend or lover. My Knowledge on relationship is nearly zero and I never dated a girl in my life. But I have concept on dating and love life, what kind of girls are good for dating and love? Let me ponder you more on this.

My dating concept is very simple. People usually date to have more fun than real commitment. So when I look for a girl to date I look for a girl like “Gossip girl” character Blair waldorf (Leighton Meester). For all the guys out there, she is god damn hot, talkative and fun loving girl at least in Gossip girl. I feel this kind of girl is apt for dating. A two to three months back I came across a lifestyle article on “The New York Times” which said dating in United States has declined but there is a new form of culture called one night stand has picked up in metropolitan areas especially among youth (GOD!I wish I was there). Unfortunately I am stuck in Singapore or India la (with Singlish accent).

Dating is all about fun. Here comes something very interesting and eternal in life which is obviously love life. There is only particular kind of girls will be suitable for love sometimes fortunately or unfortunately your date turns out to be your girl friend. If I am looking for a girl to love I will definitely fall in love with Kate Winslet of Titanic fame. I don’t mind the Kate Winslet of The Reader also (hehe). She has to be down to earth, caring, kind hearted, etc. Love is a kind of feeling which is never forced like studying math rather it has to be natural like eating food. Kate winslet actually portrayed in the movie as a very good lover who was faithful, down to earth, caring and etc. She is a woman of black hole in the universe where every man will fall into the gravity. At this point of time, you must realize I am a sloppy writer using irrelevant metaphor but I am actually enjoying it.

Last part of relationship is obviously marriage in most case but seriously I have no idea about this and I never thought of it too. I have only one opinion, it should not be forced marriages like what is happening in some cases of arrange marriage in India. Forced marriage may sometimes lead to infidelity. I am not a relationship expert but an ordinary man who wants to have fun with Leighton Meester and Kate Winslet at least in dreams.

Vegetarianism

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com

I am currently residing in Singapore which is an entrepot and major hub of economic activities. So people may tend to think that everyone can get the food of their choice but that’s not the case especially if you’re a vegetarian. Vegetarians here in Singapore suffer a lot to get a decent food. Take an example of NTU, there are only 4-5 canteens actually serving vegetarian food in that only one or two is decent enough to eat. Then why be a vegetarian and suffer, common sense question. Yeah, there are lots of reasons too.

Let us look at the different kinds of vegetarian diets.

Vegan: Eats- Fruits, Vegetables, Legumes, Grains, Nuts, and Seeds; does not eat- Meat, Fish, Shellfish, Poultry, Dairy Products, and Eggs.

Lacto-vegetarian: Eats - Fruits, Vegetables, Legumes, Grains, Nuts, Seeds, and Dairy Products; does not eat - Meat, Fish, Shellfish, Poultry, and Eggs.

Ovo-vegetarian: Eats - Fruits, Vegetables, Legumes, Grains, Nuts, Seeds, and Eggs; does not eat- Meat, Fish, Shellfish, Poultry, and Dairy Products.

Lactoovo-vegetarian: Eats - Fruits, Vegetables, Legumes, Grains, Nuts, Seeds, Eggs, and Dairy Products; does not eat - Meat, Fish, Shellfish, and Poultry.

Semi-Vegetarian: Eats - Fruits, Vegetables, Legumes, Grains, Nuts, Seeds, Eggs, Dairy Products, Fish, Shellfish, and Poultry; does not eat – Meat.

I am falling into the category of Lactoovo-vegetarian.

I am from Cuddalore that means sea town in Tamil. So obviously I have eaten fish from my childhood then I denounce fish and start eating vegetarian food which is not so tasty like sea food. For all the fish lovers, fish is the only food which has omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty is essential for your brain development. Vegetarians may take some recommended supplements. The reasons why I chose to eat vegetarian food are I don’t wanna be an obese by eating meat and not working out, meat has trans fat and saturated fats it will take very hard work to burn it (I am not a hard worker too), wanna reduce my carbon foot print (I am not religious at all) and last but not least I can save money (Non- vegetarian food are more expensive than vegetarian).

There are other inherent benefits of being vegetarian; it is proven that vegetarian diet improves immunity. A simple Google search will provide ample amount of merits and demerits of vegetarian diet. I don’t want to urge others to be vegetarians. Eat what you like.

Why I write?

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com

Many of friends asked me why the hell you write. They have a very valid point why should I write and torment the readers. I have some purpose and reasons behind why I started writing blogs. I am always fond of writing, reading and debating though I am not an expert in any of those mentioned. It was in the middle of first year I realized that I should also start a blog and write about my perceptions on the things I come across mostly through reading newspapers, books. I strongly believe writing especially creative writings improve the thought process of a person and also language skills. I never in my life formally learnt any English grammar so it is a platform for me to expose my mistakes and also learn to overcome it. That said, I aspire to be a manager, one of the vital skills for managers is to express themselves succinctly and scrupulously. Hence, I believe writing blogs will definitely have a strong effect on it. I decided to give our infamous CAT or GMAT for some good Business admission; I think blog writing will certainly have a positive impact on my verbal skills.

Moreover I have a purpose for writing blogs too. I realized that during my second year journalism course called “Media in America”. It was lecturer senior fellow “Mr. Syed Javed Nazir” inspired me to think critically in every issue. He was a journalist from Pakistan who wrote a controversial column in Pakistan’s English national daily and his column provoked agitations all over Pakistan because he wrote about Isalimist radicalism. He told us in the class that he was chased out of Pakistan by his government and jailed also. He escaped from Pakistan and reached United States got a fellowship in Harvard for his journalist pursuit. He told us why he wrote such an article though he knows that he will be in trouble. He is a strong believer of change and opinion. If anyone wants to know more about him, you can just Google it. I realized that every writing has some influence at least though not too a great extent like how my lecturer’s one had. I am a citizen of India which is a democratic country and also a citizen of the world who has a part to play when it comes to educating others. Hence, I decide to write blog.

I am an ardent fan of “The Newyork Times” and always felt that such kind of journalist ethics and influence is lacking in India. For your information, The Newyork Times is free and will be found at www.nytimes.com or www.global.nytimes.com . It is worth reading the columns of Thomas L Friedman, Paul krugman, Nicolas kristof. For a democratic country to be strong and proactive it must have transparent and influential journalism. We in India don’t have ample information to make a wise choice in political spectrum or even in career. Whatever I read on NYT, economist or any other entertainment websites give me an idea or perception. I want to reflect on those ideas in my blog. But I try not to offend anyone in my blog. So I decide to mirror my perception based on others rather me alone. In the process even I can sometimes address the growing concern among the public, my travelogue, film reviews and etc. Eventually like every amateur writer I do want to capture a space in the realm of blogosphere.

Enough of boring stuffs, my blogging do have some selfish pursuit. Blogging has given me a full freedom to express my feeling to the outside world. I treat blogs has a pastor to whom I can confess but sometimes hiding the truth. I can bitch about lame things or complain that my life is too boring. It is basically my dear friend to whom I can share things but not confidentially. I recently figured out that through blogs you can make money in leaps and bounds. I haven’t reached that point yet but I want to explore that path too. Lastly, an anecdote from my life when I was a 10th grade I was ousts from class for having opinion but now I am an independent person so I want to have an opinion.

Brain Drain and Brain Gain

I have moved my blog to www.spotalks.com

According to Wikipedia, Brain drain is defined as a large emigration of individuals with technical skills or knowledge, normally due to conflict, lack of opportunity, political instability, or health risks. This is also called as human capital flight. There are inevitable advantages and disadvantages for the countries. Firstly, let us look at the disadvantages; the host country of emigrant loses economic benefits because he/ she are not contributing to the economic developments of the country though he/she studied at the cost of the tax payer money. On the other hand, the country which receives these expertise at free of cost is gaining brain. Most of the time, these brain are incredibly talented and contribute a lot to the economic success of the country. For example even American congress passed a bill to praise IITians for their tremendously contributions to the American economy.

This topic of brain drain was most discussed in India till India opened its closed doors to the foreign competition and started liberalizing its socialist era policies. But in recent times, Brain drain is never a hot topic to debated or discussed in the public domain. There are several reasons and now much hyped word is “Brain Gain”. We will look into Brain Gain later in this entry. Now let us analyze what caused the brain drain from some of our prestigious institutions especially IITs and IIMs. Undeniably these institutions are one of the elite institutions in the world and they produce best candidates for real world challenges. But our socialist era policies were not supportive enough to create economic or job opportunities here in India. Hence, they chose to travel abroad for better financial opportunities at the cost of our money. Most of us will know that IITs and IIMs education is heavily subsidized by the tax payer money. To quote a few facts “The UNDP estimates that India loses $2 billion a year because of the emigration of computer experts to the United States of America. Indian students going abroad for their higher studies cost India a foreign exchange outflow of $10 billion annually”.

How do we solve this problem in a simplest and logical manner especially the emigration from our centrally funded universities? There are workable strategies implemented in many countries to avoid emigration of best brain that were studied at the cost of their tax payers’. For example, we need to devise a bond at least two to three years for students who studies at the subsidized fee have to work mandatorily here in India. Students not paying subsidized fee should be exempted from the bond. In this way, it helps to tap their talent in India and reduces the brain drain by considerable amount. This is not coercive imposition on students because students are given choice to either choose subsidized fee or full fee. This will also help finance our strained and obsolete infrastructure. In the current scenario most of the IIT or IIM students must have gone for some form coaching classes. As we all knew coaching class charge a whopping amount of at least a lakh per annum. Only an upper middle or middle class can pay such a humungous amount of money. So it may not be wrong to ask these kids to pay their real fee and do whatever they wish to do after graduation.

Recent surveys and placements results from IIMs and IITs are conspicuous that now majority of students more than 95% want to work in India. This paradigm shift has to be attributed to the increasing opportunity in India and also dwindling financial opportunities abroad. Liberation of India from “Black capitalism” to real capitalism faithfully encouraged Indian elite to stay and contribute to rapidly burgeoning economy. Ironically, there is also perceived reverse emigration of brain from western countries which previously attracted best brain from developing countries. The word “Bangalored” was publicized very heavily in western media. India’s IT hubs and manufacturing hubs are attracting NRIs as well as foreigners to set up companies here in India. Interestingly more and more people are shifting their family to India for personal and cultural reasons. So, globalization has leads to reverse brain drain or brain gain to India and other developing countries. It is estimated that 90% of the world’s scientist and engineers will be living in Asia by 2010. That year is not too far, so let us wait and watch. May be recession is having an effect on brain gain as well as drain.

Lastly, even our prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh asked Indian students to travel and study abroad to bring unique skills back to India or build Indian brand overseas. Students who wish to explore and upgrade themselves may go overseas to learn vital skills bring it back to India if they wish. This actually makes sense because we do need Indians living abroad to convince their company to set up shops in India or start their own company in India. Though this may be categorized as brain drain but still India is gaining in long term economically and culturally.

View from top and bottom

I am feeling bored hence I need to write some crap to make me busy. Since chaotic democracy India is currently undergoing election, I want to look at democracy in the perceptive of elite and illiterate. But the funny thing here is these two people are invited for a forum on democracy in their local constituency by collector of the district. The illiterate dressed in lungi and cotton shirt; the elite dressed in branded pant and shirt. Both of them went into the room the elite wished the collector but illiterate bowed his head down to show his respect for the collector. Collector asked them to take seat and he started briefing these two people on the objectives of today’s meeting.

He says since our Indian democracy is going for election we, the government officials really wanted to know whether the objectives of democracy has been fulfilled in this 60 year long journey. So, He said, want an opinion of rich and poor, educated and uneducated on what really democracy means to them? He told them to be frank and honest but don’t quarrel among them. He basically gave some of his insights such as Do you think political parties truly represent the people whom elected it? What do you think we need to improve our governance? Do you think the Indian government really fulfilling your economic needs? And etc.

Actually in real debates or discussion it is always the uneducated who start first because he/she usually don’t speak from mind but they speak from their heart. Emotions always flow faster than thoughts so our illiterate started telling all the problems he was facing ranging from basic amenities to sophisticated schools. He said that his house most of the time experience outage, water problem and none from municipality attends his sewage problem. Government doesn’t pay market price for his rice he sells at its purchase centre. So he don’t care what democracy really means unless these buggers fix my basic problem which they are ought to do.

The rich elite guy started talking about freedom of speech, good governance, and regulation of markets, urbanization, Industrialization and modernization of education. Indian democracy is not true democracy at all, its policies never represent the popular opinion of the public and political parties basically polarize people based on caste, religion and status for votes. We know that wining of political parties doesn’t depend on its incumbent achievements or past track record or future policy goals but just depend on debauching the poor by liquor, money on the Election Day. It is not a democracy when people don’t vote by their conscious but by their guilt.

Collector was as furious as these two people so he really wanted an opinion on how to solve this mess. The uneducated gave an idea that candidates should be scrutinized by public in a public forum open to all. It has to be telecasted or broadcasted so that everyone can watch it. The elite said besides that we need to change the apathy of the upper and rich class towards to Election. We need to over haul our constitution to make two party political systems. We need to raise the bar on the eligibility of the candidates who are contesting in the election.

The district collector ended the forum and he said he will look into all the demands, will forward this forum discussion to the legislative committee to consider some changes. He was quiet moved by the co operation, passion and caring showed by two stark sections of the society. He said he will look into the problems of uneducated guy’s locality and also promised that he will conduct some awareness camp in rich neighborhood.