Cry of the poor is applause in West

The economic reforms in India were really painstaking to the poor in India. And I did feel very bad the way the right capitalistic government in India treat the people who voted them to power. And these days I was reading all the news about the protests all over India and was feeling one with the poor…….. But now today in my International Political Economy class I was taken into surprise with the comments about the recent developments in India. The government in India was highly praised for the economic reforms and special attention was given to the prime minister telling that he has at last opened his eyes and is awake………. This is the difference when we study politics in Europe………….. The way things are seen from here is different. The areas of concern for the western political scholars are different. The more the markets are open the more the government is appreciated. In a world where everything runs capitalistic (no one sees the depressions and the crisis) India becomes no different. Mr.Singh needs only the western appreciations and not the appreciation from his majority citizens who are poor (World Bank index shows 75.6% of the population (828 Million) are living below $2 a day). No wonder as he also did study economics in west. 

When I can study something in my mother tongue?

When I went came out of the school and started my college studies the most difficult part was to study everything in English as it is naturally a foreign language to me as our mother tongue and the national language were other than English. So I went through the pain of studying philosophy and theology in English. Then I said to myself blessed are those who are privileged to study all these in their mother tongue.

As time passed I could mast the language to a certain extent. But the next challenge was waiting for me at the door. It was to pursue my studies in the German language in Switzerland.  Oh yes, it was a challenge more than I expected. With a year of German language studies in India and the two years now in Switzerland, I am still struggling to understand the technical terms at the university and to express my thinking and opinions.

I am staying positive still. I remember the first week at the university and in Switzerland when I heard my colleagues speaking something very different from the German which I studied at the Goethe Institute in Pune. My best German teacher once asked about the intention of studying German and when I said that I do this with the intention of pursuing studies at a university in Switzerland, she stared at my eyes and said that I am actually in a wrong place to learn German.

Yes, that was right. I hear a different German and I speak a different German. I hear Swiss German in their dialect and I speak another German which is called ‘Hoch Deutsch’. Because of all these my mind is still occupied with the language part more than the university studies and discussion.  A free flow of my thoughts and analysis of what I read and study is still at bay.

When can I at last study in my mother tongue and express freely what I think and philosophize?

Go Yuvi, Livestrong

The one who played a key role in India winning the cricket world cup after 28 years in 2011 and in turn became the player of the tournament, the great Yuvraj Singh was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Seminoma. Cricket means a lot to Indians as Ice hockey to the Swiss. So in a land where thousands of Gods are being worshipped, Yuvi also became a God-like character. As he received the twitter message from Lance Amstrong, “Go Yuvi, Livestrong”, Yuvi took it as the greatest inspiration he could get and a personality he could look forward. I also remember the days I gave talks to the school students and every time I took the example of lance Armstrong to motivate the students who are crippled with a lot of real life struggles. He was a big inspiration to those who battled their life under life threatening sicknesses. He was a hero for many. But when he is now found guilty of doping and later he is stripped of all the seven Tour de France medals, I get confused. Whatever people say, he remains still a hero to me. He came back to life with a bang after fighting a testicular cancer and the brain tumor. I still remember the quote from him which I used to read several times whenever I needed a push in life. It runs so. “We each cope differently with the spectre of our deaths. Some people deny it. Some pray. Some numb themselves with tequila. I was tempted to do a little of each of those things. But I think we are supposed to try to face it straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage”. Yes, Amstrong continues to be a model of inspiration. His fight against the cancer is bigger than his doping. As Yuvi says “Lance continues to be my hero. As a cancer survivor, I know it is difficult to come back and perform. I don't know how they banned him but he will always be an inspiration to me".