MIG 21's Saga! Where Lies the Truth?

Last week after long long time I went to see the movie Rang De Basanti in a hall. There was a freshness in the way the story was narrated. Though the climax was a bit too dramatic to my liking. But then issue raised in the movie was too close to my heart i.e. frequent accidents of our MIG 21 fleet over the years. This question was hovering from long time in my mind but the movie again forced me to ponder why such a thing is happening in this free democratic India? What are the issues involved & who is to blame? And here what I found out ....

THE POINT :Losses of IAF Fighter planes/Pilots Alarming, May 2001
It has become a routine to read the news regarding MiG 21s crashes quite frequently. The worst accidents are that the fighter pilots do not even get a chance to bail out which facility all the fighter planes have. Recently we lost another MiG 21 near Tezpur when it had just taken off and was piloted by Squadron Leader Ram a qualified flying instructor (QFI). This cannot be attributed to a pilots’ error, because this has been piloted by a qualified instructor. Each pilot costs to the IAF Rs 44 crore and a MiG costs about Rs 100 crore. Why are we playing with the lives of the fighter pilots by forcing them to fly obsolete aircrafts is not understood.........
The loss of more than Rs 900 crore to the exchequer for the crash of fighter planes of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in accidents are not only alarming but also worrisome for the country as well as for the IAF. The IAF has lost about 92 fighter aircrafts, most of them ageing MiG 21’s, in air accidents in the last five years.........

To read further Click Here.

COUNTERPOINT : MiG-21: Much Maligned! July 2002

The media gets overexcited whenever there is an accident involving a MiG aircraft of the IAF. There is surely cause for concern for the number of accidents that plague IAF. But all MiG types are labeled "flying coffins" or "widow makers" without bothering to see if common causes or versions of the aircraft are involved. Most often the headlines read, another “MiG-21 crashes -….” Very recently, an accident involving MiG-23 in Rajasthan sector was reported as that of MiG-21.
It is also not realized that over the last several decades, accident rates have come down dramatically. This gives the false impression that fight safety is being compromised more than ever before.
It is fashionable to allege that MiG-21s are getting old and hence more prone to accidents. MiG-21s are the mainstay of IAF fighter fleet and are flown for the maximum amount of hours. In the words of previous CAS, Air Chief Marshal AY Tipnis, “MiG-21s are most in numbers and in use operationally”. PAC had observed that, in the last decade, 62% of IAF accidents had occurred on the MiG-21. It is seen that the accident rates are in proportion to the fleet strength of MiG-21s, which constitutes 60 % of IAF fighter strength. Infact, the accident rates of the MiG-23 and MiG-27 are higher than that of the MiG-21.

To read further Click Here

AND THE STORY CONTINUES........

12th MARCH 2005. The Defence Ministry has constituted another experts committee to recommend measures to check the increasing number of MiG-21 crashes As many as 161 pilots had lost their lives in 321 MiG crashes in the country in the last few years. ``We are trying to make them usable. We will have to improve the standards of training. The accidents are bad. When it snuffs out lives of young IAF personnel it is much more,'' he said.

14th December 2005 MiG crashes in Assam, pilot safe (PTI) Guwahati, December 13: In the fourth crash of the MiG fighter aircraft series this year, an IAF MiG-21 today went down near the Tezpur airbase in Assam but the pilot managed to eject safely. Squadron Leader S Bansal, who was piloting the aircraft, managed to eject safely. A court of inquiry had been ordered in this regard.

What the youth of our country could do in such a situation? What's ur take on the issue?

Bihar gets a new lease of life!

I am so happy for my state today. At last there is a wind of change! With NDA winning the election under the leadership of Nitish Kumar, i feel things will improve for the better especially the law & order situation.

Bihar Elections

At last we have a leader who has a clean image & a man who can rise above casteism to take Bihar on path of development. With the state of infrastructure & administration as it is today it will be an uphill task.

Wish u all the best Nitish ji ! I hope that u will give ur best shot to the job at hand :)

Are We Really Entertained on Television Part -II ?

Continued from previous post...

Channel owners knew that apart from serials they have to go for more interactive shows to keep the audience glued to their channel . So another breed of TV programming came to the forefront consisting of game shows, musical hunt contests & reality shows. The concept of most of these shows were taken from western countries.

Indianised version of KBC has great Bachchan as its anchor who is nothing but a picture of grace & humility even after scaling such heights of stardom. But the same can’t be said about other hosts & judges chairing various game & talent hunt shows running on the TV.

It started with Neena Gupta’s show on SONY where specialty of the show was the rude behaviour & terse remarks made by the host. As expected Indian public rejected the show & it was a huge flop.

Then came musical hunt cum reality shows on various channels! Just to add a bit of zing in their programming every negative emotion of hate, jealousy, frustration, desperation of the participants was on air. Add to that was terse comments about the performances of participants by the judges. And all this in the name of borrowed concept of reality shows from the western world!

But what kind of reality is this?

All I want to say to these people that Please don’t sell human emotion in the name of reality. We love to hear these new young talented people perform. So just to sensationalize & add masala to their programming , recording every thing they do unrelated to music is a cheap type of entertainment, which they should desist from.

Similarly pointing the mistakes is a right of judges but once on air they should not be so harsh that their language becomes abusive. Take the example of Indian Idol. There was this participant from Punjab who was a signboard painter by profession. Somehow he tried his luck & got through the initial round. When he qualified in the final 10 the difference between him & rest of the participants was huge. But forgetting his background the judges including Farah Khan, Sonu Nigam & Anu Malik passed humiliating comments about his dress sense, lack of performing abilities & sur. Most of the thing said by judges were correct but the tone of the criticism was not accepted by Indian Public. The more the judges criticized him the more number of votes he got in each successive rounds.

Are we really entertained on Television? Part-I

When it comes to television programming related to entertainment I feel that we r steadily going downhill. Before saying something about present situation let’s have a look when it all started.

Unit the early eighties it was Radio in form of Vividh Bharti which ruled the roost for any sort of entertainment. At that point of time all we have in the name of entertainment on TV was a regular dose of Hindi Movies & our fav biweekly Chitrahaar.

In 1982 when Asiad happened for the first time we saw programming in colour. Few years later the era of television soaps started with the success of Hum Log a serial, which shared the joys & sorrow of Indian middle class. It was followed by another hugely successful serial Buniyaad based on the story woven around partition era. Then came serials based on epics like Ramayna & Mahabharta which captivated Indian audience for few years.
The success of these serial started an era of soaps which is continuing till date. In the late nineties our national broadcaster DD was joined by new cable channels like DD Metro Star Plus, Sony & Zee.

So what these channels have really offered us in past few years?
A host of serials enacting the same saas bahu saga, family intrigues in so called joint business family with full of 3rd, 4th & 5th angles !. Such was the regular dose of these multi vitamin capsules in the lives of section of our population consisting mostly of housewives that they became addicted to it. Indians always love melodrama so there was enough twists & turns put in by the likes of Ekta Kapoor’s to keep them interested weeks after weeks soaring the TRP ratings of their umpteenth K….. products.

But my question to these money monger production houses is straight & simple.
What is their creativity quotient?
Why all the serials have same plot, same type of characters & a same feel!
It ‘s a shame on the successful soap directors that even with so much success they failed to do something new, something more challenging. I agree that creativity is not always accompanied by the success but then there was no effort at all from their side. Their brethren from other section of media have fared much better!

Look at the advertising industry!
Our advertisements are just world class! Not only they have come up with innovative ideas every now & then but at the same time they have thoroughly entertained us. Bollywood is still formula prone but still there is new breed of directors who have avoided the clichés & given us something fresh to ponder upon…

But why I have been forced to write my post on this subject. Not because of these serials! I hardly see any of them. My main anger is directed on another breed of television programming which is the IN THING today.
More about it in my next part !!

To be continued…

Arranged & Love Marriage -Part VI

......Not every love match is similarly doomed. There are enough marriages based on great romance. Marriages that have survived all attempts to ruin them. Couples who have battled tremendous odds to be together—religious problems, caste problems, class problems, too. Yet, I fear the vulgarization of the entire love-marriage phenomenon.

At least some of the blame for this has to be shared by popular Hindi cinema. Love ke liye kuch bhi karega and similar sentiments. Nearly everyday, our newspapers run headlines about lovers caught in some hideous situation—elopements gone awry; acid attacks on women who have turned down ardent suitors; kidnappings and rapes. All this in the name of ‘love’. It’s not just an urban problem. These ludicrous manifestations of ‘love’ can be found in rural India, too! A direct spin-off of Bollywood potboilers, I’m convinced.

Marry for love, by all means. But be realistic at the same time. Marrying ‘above’ or ‘beneath’ your own level is an option only the stout-hearted should take. Even in this day and age, a large part of India is still preoccupied with caste and class. Those who attempt to cross either or both, will necessarily be up against a great deal of resistance.

To have the guts to stand up for your beliefs and marry the person you fancy, despite daunting odds, is a challenge. If, on the other hand, you are lucky enough to flip for someone you can happily take home to mother, go for it. There is no better reason to give up your independence than to be with a person you love and who loves you. But love alone is no guarantee.

At the end of the day, it’s back to the C-word: commitment. A couple in an ‘arranged’ match can fall in love later and make a success of their marriage. But someone opting for love cannot then look for the rewards of an arranged alliance.

Love is meant to overcome all odds and embrace any and every complication. Nothing quite as unrealistic or lofty is expected from a more conventional approach. Which is why, the next time someone rolls up flashing the right credentials and with serious intent, I shall swiftly arrange a dekho session at Mumbai’s all-time favourite ‘dekho’ venue—the old-fashioned ‘Sea Lounge’ at the Taj Mahal Hotel. Imagine me as a ‘proper’ mother-in-law! You can’t? Too bad. I can!

Source From The Truth abt Marriage by Shobha Dey

Arranged and Love Marriages Part-V

The worst thing about a love marriage that ends up on the rocks is that parents get all huffy and judgemental. ‘We told you it wouldn’t work. Did you listen? We knew he wasn’t the right person. Now look where you are.’ Parents in such a situation do have a point. But they also need to rise above their own feelings of outrage and false pride and provide much needed empathy to a child who has made a mistake and is going through hell.

Love marriages may be more common now than they once were in our society, but that’s only because of increased mobility and access. Dating starts during the teenage years. Couples might see each other for close to a decade before tying the knot. But even such marriages can collapse, much to the parents’ dismay. ‘After ten long years you people still didn’t know what you were doing! Ridiculous!’

Parents must avoid this harsh judgement trap and extend a helping hand to an emotionally distressed offspring dealing with a broken marriage and much else. This is a time which can only be described as wretched. I know the feeling. I’ve gone through it myself.

Your self-worth is at its lowest and you’ve never felt as desperately alone. You also feel the entire world is sitting in judgement over what is a personal and painful decision. Friends take sides, cast aspersions, play the blame game. As for foes—they gloat and chortle with glee, while trading the ugliest rumours and theories as to why the marriage collapsed.

If, at such a time, your immediate family turns its back on you too, then why call yourself family in the first place? All it takes is a little sensitivity, a little love, a little patience. I keep running into single parents trying hard to cope with a failed marriage, while presenting a tough facade. Having been there, I can identify with the emotion. No matter what anybody says, it isn’t easy. Never was, never will be. Society is not known for its kindness. When the chips are down, you have just one person to fall back on—yourself!

Arranged & Love Marriages Part-IV

///In Mumbai, too, more and more children of parents I know are leaving it to mom and dad to look for the right alliance. ‘My mother knows me better than I know myself,’ a young man confessed, ‘I trust her judgement. My dad has seen the world, he has more experience. They know what’s good for me.’ And these are guys in their mid-thirties, who have studied in foreign universities, dated a few girls, done the party circuit. And yet, when it came to marriage, they were more than happy to settle for a conventional, old-fashioned match. Much like their grandparents!

It was my generation that stupidly rebelled against a system that had worked perfectly well for centuries. A lot of us paid the price for letting our impulsive hearts decide who our life partners would be. No regrets. Just that I fear we were blindly following the West and taking our cues from Hollywood, just to prove to our parents how ‘liberated’ and ‘modern’ we were.

Our kids are smarter. And more realistic. They’ve seen too many marriages collapse and they definitely don’t want repeat performances in their own lives. Force-fed on romantic drivel from countless movies, it’s a generation that laughs at the old Mills and Boon version of marriage. They ache for performance and stability. If an arranged match can provide both, they’re not averse to considering it.

My own girls receive proposals from suitable (!) boys, through well-meaning intermediaries. So far nothing has clicked. But at least the girls aren’t scoffing. Ditto for the boys, who shrug ‘whatever’, which translates to ‘It’s okay’. Which is perhaps why I wasn’t caught entirely by surprise when I met those desi young marrieds in the US.

They were refreshingly candid while talking about the methodical manner in which their parents had gone about the whole thing. The girls were all educated, attractive professionals who looked happy enough as they adapted to an entirely alien culture with an entirely alien partner.

‘ We got to know each other only after the wedding. But it has worked out,’ they insisted. Some had had earlier relationships, but claimed that fact did not colour their decision. They’d made informed choices and expressed no regrets.

On the other hand, I also met alarmingly young divorcees (some with babies), who lamented the day they’d said, ‘I do’ to a boyfriend of long standing. ‘We thought we knew each other so well. We were used to each other’s ways, too. God knows what went wrong after we got married. It reached a point where we couldn’t stand the sight of one another.’ Can happen. Does happen. Love . . . passion . . . desire . . . madness . . . where does everything vanish? Nobody knows.

Arranged & Love Marriages -Part III

....I often ask my father what he thinks are the two basic factors that made his marriage a success. He always gives me the same answer: ‘character and abiding love’. With these comes the rest of the package. It helped, of course, that my father flipped for my mother’s looks at first glance. But what about her? Did she have a choice in the matter? He insists she did and that nobody could have forced the spirited seventeen-year-old Shakuntala to marry a man she did not fancy.

What about fights? Differences? Tantrums? Of course their marriage had their fair share of all these. But beyond occasional arguments and sulks, I don’t recall a day of sustained hostility or unpleasantness. If they had problems, they settled them in privacy. It was, in many ways, a great marriage, full of sharing, caring and deep understanding. And more than that, full of communication.

One need not rule out either communication or passion in a modern-day arranged match. Recently, while in America, I met several extremely bright American Desis. I confess I was a little surprised when told that most of the young couples slaving away for their MBAs, were in fact, not the dating couples I imagined, who’d taken campus romance to the altar, but couples who’d met as strangers through family intervention. In this day and age, these kids had taken the crucial seven steps around the holy fire, without so much as holding hands before the wedding night! And here they were, some with young children, others still settling into their new lives as ‘young marrieds’, but nobody could possibly guess that they had opted for a conventional ‘arranged’ marriage out of choice. When I expressed my surprise, they drawled, ‘Aaw—no big deal . . . it has worked out just great!’ And so it seemed!

Arranged & Love Marriage Part-II

......My father recalls his first encounter with my mother with a wry smile, so many decades later. He describes each stage as if it happened last week. How his eldest brother asked to see the ‘girl’ in broad daylight, and insisted on her displaying a bit of her ankles too! This was to make sure my mother was not lame, had no deformities in her lower limbs that a flowing nine-yard saree could successfully camouflage, and that she could walk unaided! The ‘broad daylight’ factor was to judge the exact shade of her complexion—naturally light-skinned, or caked with ‘snow’ and talcum powder? Fortunately, she was not asked to sing, dance or produce a culinary miracle for the guests’ benefit!

Apart from this, their formal meeting, my uncle also surprised my mother’s family with an unscheduled visit, during which he demanded the ‘girl’ be produced in an ‘as is’ condition, without as much as running a comb through her hair (beware! Maybe the future bride is bald and wearing a wig!).

Once she passed his scrutiny, the talks progressed to the matching of horoscopes. Alas! The family priest declared the match entirely unsuitable, insisting there was no hope for such an ill-starred couple. I understand he was ‘persuaded’ to reconfigure the astral positions with a few additional rupees thrown in for a fresh verdict. And bingo! The match was declared to be perfect after all. And so it was!...

Arranged & Love Marriages-Part-I

While browsing on the net I came across with the writings of Shobha De. Though she is not my favourite novelist, I found the topic quite closer to my heart. I remember those days when in college we discussed at great length on pros and cons of Arranged and Love marriages. So i thought why not throw the issue open to u all out there! But before that lets read what Mrs De has to say on this...


...I have seen as many successful ‘arranged’ marriages, as ‘love’ marriages. This is, of course, a peculiarly Indian description that amuses the rest of the world. But hey, I see ‘arranged’ or ‘semi-arranged’ marriages catching on, even in the West. Perhaps people have woken up to the reality that there are no real guarantees, no safety nets, either way. You can consult the most revered astrologer, talk to the family pundit, match horoscopes for all the ‘gunas’ endorsed by the shastras, but if a marriage has to collapse, it will. Ditto for a marriage driven by emotion, which we so cutely call a ‘love marriage’. It’s a fifty-fifty chance, whichever option one takes.

Young people have figured this out, perhaps intuitively. A lot of kids today are entrusting this all-important decision to their folks—parents, relatives, even well-meaning friends. Of course, the new ‘arrangement’ is more open-ended and better structured. Devoid of the old ‘rules’, which prescribed the ghastly ‘Dekho’ session, the social meetings orchestrated by middle men or women these days work in a more acceptable fashion....