Continuous Productivity

It Could Happen

They have never heard of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron or Jackie Robinson.

They can tell you about Sachin Tendulkar, one of India's greatest cricket players, but would tell you Michael Jordan is a clothes designer, not a former basketball player.

Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, two 19-year-olds from small villages in India, desperately want to live the American dream. Their shot at it is a decidedly improbable one.

They had never picked up a baseball until a year ago. Thursday, they will pitch in front of major league scouts in Tempe, Ariz., in hopes of landing a professional baseball contract.

Interesting experiment called the "Million Dollar Arm" to find pitching talent in India.

Yes, You Can be a Hindu and a Muslim

A very interesting profile of a Rajasthani community that is, essentially, both Hindu and Muslim:

They are people with a mixed Hindu-Muslim identity. And left alone, that is how they would like to be.

Deepa, 60, has a Hindu name but he thinks he is a Muslim because he follows Muslim practices.

"In my family, we celebrate Hindu festivals such as Holi and Diwali. But we also offer namaz (prayers) at (the Muslim festival of) Eid. We worship both local gods and Allah. This has been a tradition in my family. I do not know whether my ancestors were Hindus or Muslims."

Another Mehrat member is Mahendra Singh who has a Hindu name.

"We don't care about being Hindu or Muslim. It is sheer politics," he says.

Barely, 15km (9 miles) from Byawar town, Rasool runs a tea shop. He says his great grandparents were Hindus. But somewhere along the line, they became Muslims.

"It wasn't such a big deal to be Hindu or Muslim," says Rasool. His son Shankar is named after a Hindu god but he says they consider themselves Muslims.

India, I believe, is at the forefront of these hybrid religions due to its history and general tolerance.

As an Indian-American, I have many Indian friends that are Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. It's always striking to go to weddings, or baptisms, or other events and notice the similarities in food, rituals, interactions, etc no matter the religion of the people hosting the event.

Perhaps, I'm biased, but I think it's a testament to India holding on to its culture and heritage above religious boundaries.

Women to Keep Women Away

An Indian cricketer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is so popular with his female fans that the country is providing elite female commandos to protect him:

"Dhoni has a Z-plus security cover [the highest level provided by the state]. Yet it is difficult to keep the female fans away," senior police officer Manvinder Singh Bhatia told the BBC.

"So we decided to deploy women commandos for his security as they can do the job with ease," he said.

Another police officer said, "The next three weeks that he is here we will ensure that he does not have to face any kind of embarrassment like the one in Calcutta."

An interesting twist on protecting celebrities. I suppose the logic is that the female commandos can be more "aggressive" with the female fans.

Once You Leave Home...

Gupta, 38, moved to this gated enclave after 15 years spent studying and later working as a Goldman Sachs banker in New York and London. 'Ten years ago, if I had considered moving back, people would have questioned my sanity, and assumed I couldn't hack it in the US,' he said. 'Now everyone recognises that India is a very exciting place. There are tens of thousands of people like me making the decision to return.'

A trend that has been gaining momentum for at least the last 5 years is highlighted in a recent Guardian article. I remember that even when I was completing grad school back in 2003, many of my classmates that had come to the US for education and work purposes were planning to go back to either China or India to start their own ventures.

The Contrast That is India

We all know about India's economic growth and the amazing engineering and business talent.  But, what often gets overlooked is that India is still a third-world country with deep and, oftentimes, very backward beliefs and traditions:

In villages and cities across India, parents are aborting girls more often than at any time in history, doctors and children's rights groups say. In some rural areas, girls are also being killed after they are born. It all adds up to a dramatically skewed national ratio of females to males: 954 girls are born for every 1,000 boys, according to the government's 2001 census. In the United States, there are 1,050 newborn girls for every 1,000 newborn boys.

Due to this amazing disparity, the government is incorporating an incentive system that pays families to raise a girl:

Give birth to a daughter, and the family gets cash. Vaccinate her, more cash. Send her to school, feed her, delay her marriage, cash payment for each step.

The staggered payments will be handed out in seven, mostly rural states, beginning at $400 and extending up to an additional $2,500. They will "force the families to look upon the girl as an asset rather than a liability, since her very existence would lead to cash inflow to the family," Renuka Chowdhury, women and children development minister, told reporters earlier this week.

I love how they have reversed the traditional economic model of child as labor and turned a "liability" into an "asset."  Go on and read the entire article- it details the economics of the doctors that perform these abortions, whether this plan will work, and other cultural implications.