First Employment Contract

The contrat première embauche (CPE) or First Employment Contract is causing much furore around France. Last heard, over a million students, workers and unionists staged protests and demonstrations, which have spread to most major cities and towns around France. What is this First Employment Contract then and what point of this law is causing so much unrest? Basically, the most contentious aspect of this law is the right it gives an employer to fire employees under the age of 26 in the first two years of employment without any reason. Normally, the burden of proof lies with the employer, i.e. the employer has to prove that the employee is unfit to be retained before firing that employee. Under this new law, the burden of proof will lie with the employee, i.e. the employee will have to prove that his dismissal is unfair.
At first glance, this sounds grossly unfair but I personally do not think so. Yes, there is a possibility that this law can be misused by some. However, in genuine cases of misuse and unfair dismissal, there is a system in place for redressal.
With this law, the government aims to ease the current labour situation a bit and in the bargain, increase employment amongst the poorer sections of society. The current situation in France is that employers in general are hesitant to employ inexperienced young people because under extant labour laws it is extremely hard to dismiss someone once he/she has been employed. This law will hopefully make it easier to fire people and thus make employers less hesitant in hiring young people. Dominique de Villepin, the French Prime Minister has staked his entire career on line with the stance he has taken. He has declared that there is no question of deferring, suspending or diluting this law. He believes that this law will prove effective in curbing rising unemployment whilst also bringing the poorer segments of society into the mainstream job market. He cites the riots in France in Oct/Nov last year as an example of how bad things can turn when a segment of society is not properly integrated into mainstream society.

Samudra

Last Friday, I watched the Marathi play ‘Samudra’ (translated: Sea/Ocean), written and directed by Paresh Mokashi. The lead (and only) actors are Atul Kulkarni and Ketaki Thatte. The play was very different from what I had expected. Since I knew that Atul Kulkarni was playing the lead, I had guessed that it would be serious drama and serious it was. And the name ‘Samudra’ suggested a family drama filled with intense and deep emotions. But I had never expected a 70 minute taut whodunit. The play starts tantalizingly with Atul Kulkarni’s character asking what a persons last thought would be before dying. His own thoughts, he says are of immense peace and happiness. And then we go into flashback to earlier that day when he, in his capacity as a CBI officer lands on a remote Pacific island to investigate the mysterious death of 6 scientists and the puzzling absence of the seventh scientist. On the island, he finds the seventh scientist’s assistant lying unconscious. After reviving her, they both try and use the existing evidence (which is scant) and their own knowledge (which is immense) to solve these murders. There is a brilliant twist at the end.
I wouldn’t like to reveal the plot here so I won’t write more on the story but the plot involves plenty of Indian mythology. The director has tried to look at the puranas for a historical perspective rather than as fictional mythology. He uses historical, archeological, anthropological and literary evidence to show that the puranas are historical and factual. Of course, one can’t take them literally (stories of the gods and demons fighting and ‘amrit’ being churned from the ocean etc. can’t be taken literally) but according to the director, the puranas have plenty of hints to genuine historical events.
The only negative aspect (and it’s a huge negative) is that I do not think the director has put in as much effort to study hard science to support his hypothesis as he has into researching the puranas.

trekking link

For avid trekkers in and around Pune, I stumbled onto a fantastic site offering a raft of information and advice on a number of forts and trekking sites in Maharashtra. Check out Trekshitiz

another post on fast bowling

---‘Why do you think the likes of Zaheer and Kuruvilla seem to lose pace through their 20s, whereas Lee and Shoaib seem to be about as fast now (at 30 or getting close) as when they began their careers?’---
Good point Dilip and thanks for bringing it up. Lee, Akhtar and Shane Bond are all about 30 and are as fast today (maybe even faster) as they were when they started their international careers. To start off, this is rare. Most fast bowlers tend to drop speed as they age; in fact, dropping pace may even be crucial to the long term survival of a fast bowler. Pace decrease is not something that happens only to Indian fast bowlers. This can be a natural ageing process as with Srinath, Kapil Dev, Mc Grath or it can be forced through an injury as with Dennis Lillee and Allan Donald. Fast bowling is hard work and is made even harder by the fact that traditional fast bowling as well as the laws of the game demand that the bowler get into very unnatural positions while delivering the ball. Let me explain. Traditional fast bowling advocates the ‘side on’ action to help generate swing, and the laws of the game demand that the fast bowler get off the pitch as soon as he delivers the ball. So a fast bowler runs in hard, jumps and twists in one direction and after delivering the ball, pivots and turns off in the opposite direction in his follow through. All these varied and high impact actions are carried out in a matter of a couple of seconds, time over time over time again. According to one study, at each delivery jump, when the fast bowler lands, the impact on his knee is equivalent to about 7-10 time his body weight.
Additionally, the grounds that we play on in India are so bad that it is really a surprise that anyone remains fit to play over a few seasons. Two of my four serious Cricket time injuries were caused due to bad grounds. No wonder Indians are so shy to dive!
All the above is to remind you that fast bowling is a hard job and therefore, injuries and a loss of pace are natural with age. Then what do Lee and Co. do differently? For one thing, they have had their fair share of injuries. Given that, they have come back after each injury as fast as ever without a hint of a drop in pace. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, they are rarely used as stock bowlers. Their job is that of a strike bowler; bowl a few fast and incisive overs and look to topple over as many opposition batsmen as they can in that span of 4-5 overs. India has tended to use its fast bowlers mostly for two roles, one as stock bowlers bowling 10-15 overs in a spell or otherwise as the bunny who bowls the first few overs and roughs the ball up for the spinners to then step up and bowl their stuff. Secondly, they are all very strong lads with good actions and if you notice, at the delivery stride, they get themselves into excellent position to get full throttle rotation from their shoulders. In fact, even Zaheer gets into great position for a full throttle release and he used to release at considerable speeds earlier on. Thirdly, they have had the advantage to play most of their formative cricket in an atmosphere where fast bowling is considered crucial to the success of a team. That’s not the case in India, especially in the club cricket scene, where spinners dominate most often.