Slumdong's Oscar and the Post Mortem

When I was with my previous company one of my senior colleague used to say that we Indian are always good in Post Mortem. What he means is - if there is problem he spent the whole night to solve, his managers will question him about the problem and try to understand the root cause, but they never take any steps to prevent the same problem happening in the future. They keep on talking without any solution at all. Eventually that problem would be forgotten when the next one comes. He used to say that post mortem is common with almost all the Indians, they love to discuss something without any logical conclusion back and forth.



I remembered the conversation I had with him when I was watching the debate of whether India could take credit for the "Slumdog Milloinaire" oscars. Slumdog is basically a movie out of a Vikas Swarup novel about a rags to riches story. A R Rahman and Resul Pokutty won Oscars for their work in the film. The film went on to win 8 Oscars in total.

As soon as the Oscars are announced, a debate was started by most of the TV channels - whether India should rejoice about the oscar got by Rahman and Resul. I really don't understand what is so sentimental about it. Rahman got the oscars for the Music and the song, Resul for his sound mixing. It is not one of Rahman's best, but the fact is, it is the best out of the nominated ones. Rahman and Resul got their awards for their individual brillance in a global stage. We should be rejoicing. Getting nominated to Oscars is a collective factor. Although many mediocore movies have got the award before, more than one award would be given only for deserving movies. The fact that the Slumdog got 8 oscars is itself says that movie was loved by many, atleast among the judges.

I am sure if not Slumdog, Rahman would have done it with another international movie soon. Even I don't think Slumdog is a great movie and all, but it has a feel good factor and optimism. May be in this gloomy recession, many might have felt the optimism touching. Let's not post mortem their success - let us just enjoy the victory and glory of Rahman and Resul at the global stage. A big bow to both of them.

Going to a Government office:

I have never been to a Government office baring a couple of times for a Driving License and for a EB registration. I have heard lot of stories and seen movies depicting the aristocracies that happens in a government office. Well, I had a first hand experience of the same for the past couple of weeks.

If you move to a new place in India, you can realize how difficult it is to get a Address proof. I never worried about that until I got married. Three months ago, I submitted my application for a Family Card in the Civil Supplies Department. They did their duty well, they came for inspection to my home, they verified my identification and my wife's - told me that I will be getting the card in a months time. Within a week's time I had to leave to US for two months and I totally forgot about the family card for two months.

Once I came back, I went to collect my card to the office. When I went there and showed my receipt for my application form, that employee there too around 1/2 an hour to search for my family card. I am not saying that to criticize the people there, I just felt very sorry for them for the way they are forced to work. They have a office of about 2000 Sq Feet, with 15 people to work. The amount of people they handle would be around 500. Without any computerization, with only paper and ledger for tracking things, it was pitiful the way they are working. They have 30 - 40 years of paper work in that place and if a paper get lost it will become next to impossible to get a lost paper in that maze of papers.

I thought my plight was over when I got my Family Card. But they had printed my name, my address and my Ration Shop id wrongly in my card. When I went to the inspector with that card, he was very sorry. He said it is their mistake, but he cannot help, since changing anything in the card would have no effect in the database from where they print the card. He asked me to submit a affidavit again for processing for the corrections in my card.

As I saw, I could not see only the lazy government official at the office, but only pitiful people, who even if they want to help hundreds of people coming to office cannot do so because of lack of modernization, lack of people. I think it is the duty of the government to modernize and sophisticate these offices and the employees to help people get better service. I see crores of Rupees being spent on the modernization of the politicians vehicles and their security, but these people are working like this for ages without any improvement. I would simply brand this neglect as cheating the people.