World Cup Tamasha!!

Italians were the world football champions last year, but no body had an idea this has something to do with Indians winning the world cup this time. Yes, Italians were the world cup football champions in the year 1982 an year before the Indians won the elusive cup in 1983 (they also use the same blue jerseys…) and they figure out the same thing will happen this time around. Cricket frenzy fanatics out there are trying to make out analogies in favour of their favorite sporting team somehow or the other. This doesn’t stop here, there are special mantras, yagas, deities like cricket ganeshas made and all other hooey stuff going on, a month ahead of the world cup fiesta. It’s like a never ending saga.

 

It is not only the cricket loving public, which is making a big fuss of it but also the media that has a big share in it. With ubiquitous television sets and satellite channels, media has a far reaching effect today. No other sport has ever hogged the lime light as cricket does. With countdowns starting about a month in advance there are special coverages, expert analysis and opinion polls. Cricket crazy public are glued to their television sets trying to catch a glimpse of their favorite heroes. The stage can’t get bigger than this and its soaring business for the media, but what does it mean for the common man. Is cricket worth all the stir it gets?

 

All these boasting could only be logical if Indians were to perform exceedingly well. But this isn’t the case. Every time Indian team loses a match, their loss is attributed to certain experimentation done foreseeing the world cup. The team starts preparing for the world cup about an year in advance or may be even more and loses most of the matches en route to the world cup trying to figure out the right combination. Once it gets in the so called right combination, somebody gets injured or is out of form so you ll have to find replacements. Then some sidelined youth from Mumbai (only from there…) comes in as replacement. He would play a couple of matches only to find himself chucked out of the squad. The selector’s reaction for this would be ‘He was given ample opportunities but didn’t prove his mettle’. Only god knows how many opportunities were given to Sehwag.After all, he is a senior player who has done well two or three years back and is still playing on that reputation. This process of selection will go on for years with no amendments and transparency. The BCCI has become a money laundering machine and cricket has become a mere business rather than a passionate sport.

 

Well, now coming to the main stage, the world cup performance is going to be inevitable. The Indian team goes in with lots of cheering and prayers from their ardent fans. They might win a few matches against the low profiled teams or the so called minnows. This time even this isn’t happening as the minnows have learnt cricket faster and better than the Indians. Indians are not faltering because of their lack of ability but their lackadaisical approach to the game. Their world cup dreams have been shattered just few days after the commencement of the tournament. The preparation and experimentation for the past year or so have lasted just a week. After every one of those humiliating defeats, the captain would come out and say ‘We are very disappointed. We tried our level best in the game. We have learnt a lot from this encounter and would improve upon in the future’ thus shattering one billion hopes across the country. So why is it that this team has been boasted around for years when we all know what they are capable of? Even today morning, I heard one of the TV channels discussing about the preparations for the 2011 world cup. I was thinking to myself that they have started yet another media campaign for another ten-day stint in the 2011 world cup.

 

Indian team faces extraordinary amount of pressure every time they play a game. This is mainly due to the expectations of the people back home and the media hype. Vandalism and delinquency have become a routine for the Indian fans. The team is not inclined towards winning when it has the fear of losing a game. So when will the team’s attitude and focus change or will it change? We all know cricket is more of a mind game. People in India also should not be obsessed with the game and consider it as a mere sport. Winning and losing is part of the game, albeit Indian team has been defying the odds and is ending up on the losing side most of the time. Lot of transformation has to take place if this team has to earn laurels in the world cup event.

 

Let’s hope the Indian team doesn’t enter as minnows in the 2011 world cup. After all, that’s what we can do, Hope.

Are Engineers Over-Qualified?

‘There is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination’. There isn’t any apt way of explaining how blissful imagination can be and the art of engineering associated with it. But the rhetorical question right now is, who cares as long as we get paid, be it Imagineering or scatterbrain stuff. Recently, one of my neighbors came around and inquired about the scope of engineering as an effective career option for her child. I had no easy way of answering this, considering the kind of stress I was going through and the drubbing and defacement, that was on the faces of many modern core engineers entering the IT firm.

Engineering, now a sought after profession, has become just a token for employment and engineering colleges, mere placement venues. Well, with the kind of development that is going on in the IT field (by development I mean the company’s development and not that of an individual) there is going to be a paucity of human resource in the near future. Every Dick and Harry is gonna be employed in a reputed company, earning alluring figures. With the kind of job profiles these companies have, even an eighth grade student with below average marks can do exceedingly well! Companies are increasingly looking at quarter end figures and revenues that they have completely forgotten about the individual’s growth and their motivation levels.

Engineers who have lost their core identity are trying to figure out if at least a quantum of intelligence could be utilized for the job that they are doing. But the sad part is that most of them are not even working. So with all this in mind, is engineering degree still a basic qualification for the farce that is going on. I feel that engineering is an exalted profession and only certain candidates with real zeal and passion should be allowed to take it up. It should not be marketed like the way it is being done with the number of engineering colleges trying to compete with the number of schools in the state.

Why are companies looking out for mere engineering tags rather than the skill sets? Why not companies recruit diploma holders or others qualified for the job? These questions must be addressed. Companies are baiting engineers with attractive salaries and they are falling prey to it. The future strategy should be to reduce the intake in engineering field and enable them to work only in their core area. The pool of talent required for the IT sector can even be generated by training the higher secondary students. The on going process of intellectual slaughter has to be stopped or else the prospective surgeons might even be into the mundane job of code writing….

By the way, I don’t want to write a blog ‘Are doctors over qualified?’….