Question-IRE

How often are we fortunate enough to have people in our lives to prove us wrong and yet feel delighted? Aah, that is a rarity. I had always thought I was the greatest hypocrite known to me. Well, I was wrong and delighted.

We always search for answers in life, but my personal observations says that we always have the answers in form of events. What we need to search is the question as to why it so happened. The irony of it is that most often our answers are one-sided; our vision cock-eyed. The other half eludes us for reasons known, yet unknown. Mostly the questions are found to hidden in more than one answer. I think I've put my pieces of puzzle together for that comprehensive question.

Now, towards Introspection!

Take a hike, Mike!

I've a very good friend of mine who was "pestered" by a guy. She liked the guy no doubt but she was not able to cope up the so called unofficial relationship. Things she did made me want to write this post. This article gives the basic tips to girls who are pestered by "their" boys. Now since we, the so-called-fairer sex are obstinate and persistent it actually makes getting rid of us difficult. While some of the boys have - "The grapes are sour" kinda attitude towards the girl that ditched them, others go into the - "Revenge is a dish best served cold" kinda mode. While the former is a harmless mode, the latter can prove to be irritating and frustrating if not dangerous for the girl. The best way out for a girl in this paradigm is to actually make the guy walk away, not wanting to come back. This has to be subtle because if the guy gets frustrated and feels cheated it may make him go into the "revenge mode". Some of the best tricks to do it.


Rub salt on his wounds:
The best way to make a person feel worthless is to rub salt on his wounds. The best part about this is that he will retaliate to the world, but if you say that to him all he can do is get dejected and actually feel worthless. If the guy has a past relationship what you can do is do something silly and when he tries to reprimand you turn the tables on him and accuse him that this kinda behaviour of his would have been the reason of the previous girl dumping him!

Make fun:
Make constant fun of his dreams and ambitions in life. When he tries to defend his actions don't give a SHIT to his explanations and turn a deaf ear to what he has to say. Stay Aloof!

Hide and Seek:
Play a virtual hide and seek with the guy. E.g. Leave him a message saying "Hi"; 95% of the times he will reply to you within 5mins of him receiving the message no matter how busy he is. Now don't reply. There is a high chance of getting a "reply!!!!" kinda message from him after your silence. Don't reply. Again after a couple of hours repeat the same. Do it till his tipping point and when he actually tries ask you in a very irritated mode. Tell him he does not understand you and you cant tolerate it. Simply install an application called GUILT v2.3:16 :P

Get that Hippocratic bitch out:
All the above points are gonna make him walk away from you. Now more often than not, most of the guys really take efforts to actually keep track of the girls who dumped them. Now they will make repeated attempt to reach you, ignore them. He will resort to social network to keep track of you. For those who want to torment the guys, go a bit further. Do precisely those things that you were against when you were with him. Esp the things he wanted you to be part of and you were against. Before you perverted minds actually start thinking lemme give few examples. Like he might have asked you to hangout with him for the entire day and you were scared that ppl might spot you guys. Do it now with another guy and make sure it reaches him.

Well all said and done, just be sure that he does not get into the "Aata mazi satakli mode" and screws up your happiness!! All are not decent like me.. :P
*Wink Wink* xD

Infidel

Am back after a hiatus. I was so regular with my post earlier that a reader actually asked me if I've left blogging after I got my job. That statement pricked me and now am feeling guilty for not paying enough attention to my blog. Well I've been busy with my work no doubt but the real reason of my hiatus was my latest and my most prized possession. My new Nikon D3100 DSLR.

I've always been a great fan of photography and over the years it has grown from an interest to a fad to liking and now more than that. Now what I fear is my interest in photography overshadowing my blog. And hence the guilt, for I just love my blog and I know I have not done justice to it for sometime now. Feels like am cheating with my camera on my blog. Feeling like an infidel!! :P

--oo--

I've had been wanting to buy a camera for almost 2 years. What kept me so long was that I wanted to buy it out of my OWN money and not anyone else's. I had garnered about 15 thousand rupees over these 2 years thanks to the cultural and literary events that I used to attend in my graduation days that supplied about 1500 INR per month during working days as my steady source of my extra income. I spend half of it on my parties and outings and saved the rest under the banner of camera fund. After completing my graduation I realised that if I keep waiting for money my dream will never be realised and so I bought the camera for 30grands under EMI!! People not that much into photography may find it atrocious that I've got such an expensive camera. But what I want to point out is that everyone does that like buying an iPhone just because of the brand name and not actually knowing how to use it. Getting a Nokia E-series mobile just to look cool and not actually using more than 90% of the applications that are built to be used. Second thing what people ask me is "What is the NEED of such an expensive camera?", and when I reply "Nothing"; they call me a fool. But the thing is that they are so confused with the logic in life. I don't NEED a camera but I for sure WANT it. All we NEED is food, clothing, shelter and the adequate money to get it. But we WANT so many thing in life, a mansion, lots of money, an attractive partner and the list is never ending. Then they tell me "That means your an excellent photographer now"!! Getting a DSLR and being an excellent amateur shutterbug are two mutually exclusively things. Done with part one, en route to the other!

For this paradigm am reminded of Saif Ali Khan's dialogue in the movie Race -
Race Gadi nahi chalane wala jeeta hai
Race is won by the driver not the car.



--oo--

Some of the random clicks of mine below. All the pictures were shot at 4608 x 3072 pixels but now compressed for upload.

Taken from the level 4 of Korum Mall in Thane of the Cadbury Flyover.

Raindrops falling on the steps.

Shot through the leaves of the streetlight.

The working of the welder in my office.

Traffic in low shutter speed.

Freedom?? BALLS!!

Yesterday I was sitting at home time-passing with my family. Suddenly my aunt asks me to pass the scissor. I give it in her hand but she refused to take it and asked me to keep it on the ground. She said that as it is we always keep fighting , I don't want to aggravate it so I wont take it from your hand. I was pissed at the superstition and said that India and its customs suck. I said that because my sister who is in her 10 grade always keeps saying INDIA ROX and I just wanted to irritate her. Suddenly all the heads in the room turned towards me, started shouting at me and I ended up being getting almost disowned by the family. Am sure had they been in power they would have deported me from India. So I wrote the following status on Facebook and look at the reactions I got...

Ghante ka INDEPENDENCE DAY :/

I cant even say out loud that INDIA SUX w/o ten ppl trying to inpugn my INDIANess :@

MORAL OF THE DAY:- INDIA SUX :@ :@ :@

Yesterday at 17:12 · Privacy: · Unlike · 

You and Ml Ranganathan like this.

Abhijeet Shinde Desh Drohi :P

Yesterday at 17:28 · Like ·  1 person

Ashwin Kukreja so where do you want to migrate ? canada, australia ?

Yesterday at 17:29 · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Ashwin C C.. this is wat i was talking abt... I never said i wanna leave.. I love it here. But the fact is that it sucks. This INDIAN attitude of OURS that i dont like. :(

Yesterday at 17:36 · Like

Ashwin Kukreja indulge in constructive criticism by all means. No one's gonna object. But there are people who dont want to make even small changes in their own lives. These guys will go abroad, follow all rules and when they're back they'll spit on the streets. These kinda guys deserve to be kicked out of this country. So when you say India sux, in the same breath offer a possible solution. That'll make it constructive, creative and positive.

Yesterday at 17:45 · Unlike ·  3 people

Ashwin Kukreja u also must understand that you cannot say "india sux" so loosely, you are touching a raw nerve in people who are grateful to this country for whatever they are. We are living here, earning here, we respect this country for whatever it is. Sure there are numerous things which suck big time but whatever it is, we are here. We must eliminate those things to whatever extent we can. There's a lot of talk going on about changes which shd happen but it wont happen overnight. BUt whatever it is, we cannot deride our country so casually .

Yesterday at 17:53 · Unlike ·  6 people

Pratik Kambli Achutan u will get u Ass Kicked...!!

Yesterday at 18:15 · Like

Viswanathan Bala Fuck off dude.. If any true Indian heard u saying that, u would be updating ur status frm hell right now.

Yesterday at 18:19 · Like ·  1 person

Pratik Kambli Vichi ....Howz u ?? Ill be the one to send him there....:X

Yesterday at 18:20 · Like

Viswanathan Bala bhej saale ko .. and dont forget to record the video of his death. We will post it here. Let us put an end to this bastards misery.

Yesterday at 18:21 · Like ·  1 person

Pritesh Veera Thats sad...

I m proud of my india

Yesterday at 19:10 · Like ·  1 person

Ml Ranganathan ‎2day people are celebrating independence day by putting badge and flags in hands.but tomorow the same badge will be kept aside,flags may b thrown in the distbins or road side.is this wht we call respect to india.i dont believe and agree in this.if u really want to respect ur country try to respect your flag first.

Yesterday at 19:13 · Like

Pritesh Veera Free your self from chain of impossed thoughts n experience d freedom 2 be free...

Achutan see want this nation has given to us....

If u hav a problem with attiude of people 1st we need to change our attitude n then may b expect from others....

Common bro bug up...

Yesterday at 19:17 · Like ·  1 person

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Viswanathan Bala I have the freedom to think and say watever i want..

Pratik saaale bol bacchan, u have still have the OPTION of UNFRIENDING me from ur list.. hehe :P

Yesterday at 19:27 · Like

Pritesh Veera So is that the solution

Yesterday at 19:29 · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Ashwin I aint saying the country is bad.. jus the way ppl have kept it all these 60-odd years... The epitome of it is that I at home just told that Indian superstitions sux and all pounced on me... I totally agree with wat u have to say..

Yesterday at 19:29 · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Pritesh Na.. we all very well know wats the soln and we sure know we aint implementing most of them.. :(

Yesterday at 19:30 · Like ·  1 person

Pritesh Veera So true dude

Yesterday at 19:32 · Unlike ·  2 people

Achuthan Raman Chari MORAL OF THE STORY: WE ALWAYS LOOK AT STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS AND NOT THE EMOTIONS BEHIND IT... :@

Yesterday at 19:32 · Like

Viswanathan Bala ‎Achuthan Raman Chari then wat kind of freedom are u talking abt ?

Yesterday at 19:32 · Like

Viswanathan Bala If u hate the country so much, but still claim to be patriotic. Then what steps have u taken to rectify the system ?

Yesterday at 19:36 · Like ·  1 person

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Viswanathan My statement/status only meant that we all are all talking abt freedom but when it come to GIVING freedom to others WE ALL lag behind and "INDIA SUX" was jus to lay emphesis and not ridiclue.. DUH am I justifying!!

Yesterday at 19:36 · Like

Viswanathan Bala Giving freedom ? i didnt get u .. be more specific

Yesterday at 19:37 · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Viswanathan chup re pakao... u want explanation; call me.. saala boring to type here. :P

Yesterday at 19:39 · Like ·  1 person

Diana Titus den change ur attitude ...u mite love it >:(

Yesterday at 19:40 · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Diana please read it fully before commenting :@ *IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS* :@

23 hours ago · Like

Siddharth Sampath ‎Achuthan Raman Chari : f*** off

22 hours ago · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari ‎Siddharth Sampath u fk off... MY WALL MY POST :@.. unfriend ur FKING SELF IF U DONT WANNA C :@

21 hours ago · Like

Siddharth Sampath ‎:P ur a traitor :P

21 hours ago · Like

Achuthan Raman Chari if by posting this am a traitor. so be it.. PROUD TO BE ONE.. \o/ :P

21 hours ago · Like

Siddharth Sampath ada pavi :( :( no words to tell u anything :P

21 hours ago · Unlike ·  1 person

Inference:

We the Indians have just used and abused the country to such a point that we have absolutely no patriotism left whatsoever and Independence and Republic day have become just a festival. Just as we dont think about Diwali, Christmas or Eid the whole year but only on the particular day we wish others, in the same way we have 1000's of status updates and texts and then we comfortably forget about it for another year. Just as in the case of Diwali we find the crackers strewn across the roads, here we have our Tricolour down. If India was God and my comments deemed blasphemous then yes am an atheist. But one thing is certain that this much criticised atheist thinks about that very God and does more than much of His devout theist followers generally do. People say "Tune kya kiya hai desh ke liye?/What have you done for the country?", because it make them apparently cool in vox populi. But what they fail to understand it that it is no longer cool to just keep blabbering. In the recent on-going test series when India was 0-2 down, I wrote on my wall that Indian cricket was in the dumps and I was looking forward to a whitewash. All true Indian cricket lovers agreed with me and were with me in offering brickbats to the team (but all of us supported INDIA in the 3rd test) while the nouveau-cricket-likers were all up in arms against me. I see a parallel here. They think so much about country and end up doing nothing. We don't need to live 100years to be remembered for ages. Just living one day for others will make us immortal in the annals of history. 

  [] How many of the above commented self-proclaimed-patriots know the starting lines of the Preamble and when it was adopted? (for all u lesser IQ-ed mortals let me enlighten, it was done on 26th November 1949 and not 26th January 1950)

  [] How many of us have ever thought about the surrounding?

  [] How many never throw litter down but only in the bin?

  [] How many of us give blood regularly? 

  [] How of us give our children/ young cousins value based TV viewing content like Jataka tales/ Panchatantra/ Ramayan etc. Instead of Shinchan and Doremon?

  [] How many actually close the taps in public when they see it running waste?

  [] How many give lift to absolute strangers in autos who we come to know are travelling to the same destination as us?

[trivia] I do all of the above except the blood donation due to health reasons [\trivia]

I have been in the receiving as well as the giving end of the auto paradigm and trust me it makes your day in both the cases. We don't need to give our lives to be patriot. Just make your surrounding a better place to live in and the country will be a better place automatically.

Highlight of the article: 65years on I still cant have my say on India and say am a proud Indian all in one single statement. (with only one person talking sensibly and trying to make me understand his point)

:'(  :@

P.S. I wrote a poem on the Republic day this year that will i think sum-up the whole scenario. Click here.

Beyond the 11th hour

Well its the month of June and all of the educated creatures belonging the subspecies homo sapiens sapiens are gripped by pangs of the "Go Green fever". The various types or media viz. Televisons, newspapers, the internet are all flooded with messages of saving the planet and reducing the carbon footprint. They suddenly realise the importance of World Environment Day! Well, I'll follow suit and try my bit in spreading the awareness! Here I've analysed some of the things we do foolishly, yet we're unaware of it. I'll start with the basic things and move on to bigger issues.

We in schools were taught time and again to not waste the precious resources of our planet. But as in the case of any school knowledge, we've comfortably forgotten the lessons and make rampant use of the resources. It starts with the wastage of a thing without which we will cease to exist today; Electricity. We dont care about the wastage of electricity and the reason is pretty obvious; it doesn't burn a big hole in our pockets. A normal tubelight has a wattage of about 60W, keep it burning unnecessarily for about an hour in a day amounts to the loss of just 60W, in a year just 21.9 kWh. Now lets translate that in terms of money, assuming a unit of electricity costs Rs 5, at max you could loose just Rs 110 in a year for a tubelight! It is this attitude of ours "what is the use of saving the wattage of just one tubelight?" that spells doom for the whole of mankind. Now let me explain, the more the wastage of electricity the more the power generation that is required, the more the generation the more the burning of fossil fuels, the more the burning the more the pollution and more the global warming! the worst part : The more the warming the more the usage of ACs which lead to more warming! Its a vicious circle!

The next resource rampantly used is Water. There are many people on the face of the earth who don't have access to safe and pure drinking water! If you have enough clean water to drink be fortunate that you are not  amongst the 19% of the people who don't have clean water to drink! Ok, now you may question "What is gonna happen by my saving of water? Is it that am using their water? Anyways the water goes to the earth!" Well I've an explanation on why you should not waste water. The water that comes to our taps is drawn from the reservoirs, chlorinated, sent to our homes and pumped to our rooftops! The catch is that all of the above processes require electricity, and wastage of water indirectly is wastage of electricity and it is like giving impetus to the vicious circle of global warming.

Greenpeace India on 18th May 2011 exposed the diesel exploitation by the telecom giants in India. The government subsidy is about Rs 7-11/litre of diesel for running the generators of the towers! the report says
         "In 2008, according to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), telecom sector consumes 2 billion litres of diesel annually for running mobile towers which has grown to 3 billion in year 2011 with 30 % growth rate"
[F.Y.I] Burning a single litre of diesel emits 2.6kgs of Carbon into the air, multiply that into 3 billion, well that is just for a year from a single country like India! [/F.Y.I]


Watching the Formula1 races has always given people a high. The sound of engines revving, the speed and the breathtaking manoeuvres. On 11th of December Indian Grand Prix is set to take place. This serves as welcome news to all the fans. But have you ever thought? Is such a sport really required considering the energy crisis we are already facing on earth? So much of wastage of fuel just to satiate the human ego and prove who is faster! Well well! In most of the things we do, we somehow waste a lot of resources. Its high time now. They say we are at the eleventh hour and we need to take actions to save the earth. I just laugh at them, good sense of humour they have. Well, don't try to save the earth, the earth will continue to remain as it is, It is we who are going to perish. Lets save our asses as we're already beyond the eleventh hour!

Bare beauty

For the contest "What does beauty mean to you?" on Indiblogger!

Beauty is a characteristic of a person that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction says Wikipedia. They even say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well then what to behold would be the right question.

A thing of beauty is something that appeals to the emotions and makes you apprecaite it. So anything could be beautiful. You could find a song beautiful, a sculpture or a scenery for that mater of fact. When it comes to a person being beautiful, I believe that to be beautiful means to be comfortable with your true inner self and its outer image. Beauty is important on both the inside and the outside. Is a rose ever ashamed of its thorns? You need to accept your flaws and take pride in your talents in order to achieve beauty on the outside. It's all about confidence as well.

Being beautiful has to do with the mind too. If you are in fear or angry you simply cannot be beautiful. These are the emotions that are worse than useless. There must be peace and tranquility on the inside They radiate on the face and show in the eyes. The eyes are the index of the soul and if the soul isn't beautiful the person can never be! Every person on the face of the earth wants to achieve that immortal and eternal beauty. But what they fail to understand is that when they seek beauty as an end in itself they may achieve it, but for a short period of time. It will be temporary and it wont satisfy. But if beauty comes to one on its own, as a result of right thoughts and action it will be eternal. The path is important. A classic example of this is Mother Teresa, even at her ripe old age, with the fair wrinkled skin and her over-worked hands she was adorable. Her face was serene with a magical smile and eyes that had a mystical glint. She was not only beautiful, She was GORGEOUS!

For me Beauty is a delicate balance of the inner and outer self. It is an attribute that can be sought and caught; but never taught and bought!

IFs and BUTs

At 1345hrs on the 27th of February as I was standing amongst the hundreds of students at the exam center I was one of the select few aspirants whose face bore a sense serene tranquility! That tranquility comes to you either when the question paper is revealed or when you don't have the pressure to perform. I was of the second case as I had decided that the CET-2011 was to be my mock exam and that I would give it seriously in 2012! The paper was tough and the results low. I got  91.76%-ile with 91 marks, six marks short of my self estimate. I knew I had faltered as I had marked 4 answers wrongly in that OMR response sheet in a hurry due to lack of practice and experience! I brushed it off lightly.

But life changed in the moment I got my result. I've now decided to not continue with my plans and to join MBA this academic year itself. But then the stark reality hit me hard; 91.76%ile isnt enough to get me a MBA-MMS seat in any of the top 10 colleges in Bombay! Now as every time my mind started working extra-time. What if I would have not marked those four answers wrongly? What if I had taken an ink-eraser with me? What if I had seriously studied without the idea of rewriting it in 2012? What if...? What if...??? But possibly, had I written it seriously I might have not scored this much because then I might have lost that tranquility and ended up erring even more under pressure! But I cannot justify myself or any of the above cases using theory-crafting, because I know for sure that the human mind is the least predictable of the things in the universe. In the past 24hours I must have done theory-crafting on about ten different cases on what I should have and haven't done. Probably I will look back after 10years and say what happened was good, who knows!

These IFs and BUTs are what make us realise that even the smallest of actions can have the greatest of impact. We realise then, that every moment no matter how small is important and life is like walking on the edge of the cliff where every step is to be taken with care, as each step we take is a calculated risk or else we are doomed! The cliff is actually a better place to err as atleast you know the worst thing that will happen is death! Now that I've erred with those four marks; although unknowingly, I'll have to pay a heavy price, and the price is to drink the bitterest of poisons - Regret. Now I've realised that "you'll seldom experience regret for something that you do. It is what you don't do that will torment you the most".

Tranquil tyrant

India and Pakistan have always had the sense of rivalry. Is it the hype created in the media or the politics of the non-peace loving elements of the society? Ask any commoner from either of the countries and they will have the unanimous answer of "We want peace"! Then why the rivalry?

Tyrant on the field and a perfect ambassador of his country and peace Shahid Afridi won many hearts for this interview of his. When a person is at such a pedestal and all eyes on him, whatever he speaks ha got it own weight. He was the perfect idol of Aman ki Asha. Although I hate to see him on the field, my respect for him has soared beyond measure. I just wish all the dignitaries of respective countries show such mannerism!

So rightly said
"If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots!" 
~Napoleon Bonaparte

Peace NOT p i e c e s!

"We make war that we may live in peace!" This famous quote of Aristotle comes to my mind daily as I read in news of the blasts and killings. Anger, skirmish, battle and war, all these have just two reasons to show their face on earth, difference in language or religion!

What makes a language, a language? The phonetics or the script? Take for instance the sound "Aa", can u distinguish whether it is a Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi or a Bengali "Aa"? The distinguishing factor has always been this script and we humans have always fought over this for god alone knows what! Take the case of our own India, where the states were originally divided on the basis of language for better administrative and communicative purposes. But now they have probably forgotten that they belong to a larger group called India and a even larger group "Humans"! Classic cases of the rifts are the Cauvery water row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the Belgaum issue between Karnataka and Maharashtra, the internal rifts in Andra Pradesh and the list is in-exhaustive.

The next thing what we humans clash over is religion. The only religion that existed in prehistoric times was humanity. It was a binary value. Good or Bad, and nothing in between. But somewhere in between things took a turn for the worse. But the irony is that since all the religions in the world ultimately say the same thing, just as in the case of the phonetics we cant say which religion said what in the broader perspective. The paths may be different but the all reach the same place!

The problem in my opinion lies in the fact that we humans sometimes as educated fools are not able to distinguish between the feelings of fondness and fanaticism! Loving a thing is good, fanaticism is fatal. Had Aristotle been alive today he would have written "We make war and we lie in PIECES!"

Here is an anecdote:-

There was once a man reading a book and his child was asking him lot of questions and irritating him. To make his child quiet he took a paper and tore it into pieces. On the paper was the world map. He asked the child to join the pieces of the map and then ask him questions. The child came back in a matter of 5mins and showed him a perfectly joined map. The man was puzzled and asked how he managed to get it right as the child was very young to know the placement of the countries on the map. The child showed his father that on the reverse of the map was a human face, the child has just joined the human face and the world was perfectly assembled!

Black

 They say am jinxed,
They see me and always draw flak,
Never I see them; by me clothed,
Is it because am the colour black?

Black is the colour that has always been perceived as inferior and degrading. Very few prefer writing in black ink. People don't wear on auspicious occasions. Black is considered evil and bad while people want to go to white and right!

Black has always been my favourite colour and I did some searching to why people refrain from using it. And came across some of the following findings.

Whenever we say that something bad has happened the colour that comes to our mind is black, e.g. "Black Magic". It is because in our ancient Indian history Anjana/Kajal/Collyrium was used in black magic practiced using Atharvaveda. And since collyrium is black in colour, Black is detested!

Another being that according to Indian astrology the colour black is the colour of Saturn or Shani. And Saturn is presumed to have control over all the negative things that can happen to a person or thing according to Indian tradition and hence the colour avoided. But black is a recommended colour for saturday as Saturn is the deity corresponding it and black pleases it. And since most of the auspicious days do not fall on saturday it eventually became a trend of not wearing black on saturdays.

Black is supposed to pertain to infamy and make the wearer infamous. It is also said that since the burning of a thing leaves behind black residue or the thing is charred, in the same way black is a harbinger of calamity. Also the colour of the deity of the graveyard is always potrayed in black. The colour of buffalo, the vahana of Yama is black! So the general phobia towards Black!

I always believe in science and it has to say that just as white light is a mixture of all the basic colours in the same way darkness is the absence of them. While an object that is white reflects all the colours, an object is black 'cauz it absorbs all the light falling on it; thats it nothing more! And no matter how many people and things go against it, Black has and will always be my favourite colour!

Perception...

Perception; one of the most beautiful words in the English language! Our whole world almost always revolves around perception. All the adjectives are based on perception. How would a thing "small" be small if there wasnt anything bigger than it? 

Here are some example of the normally distorted perception with reactions; may seem totally weird but are absolutely true!

01. INTRIGUING ABOUT PERSONAL LIFE:

normally    : Who is this person to even ask me such questions?

in the BAR : MAN! He is so caring a person!

02. YOU CALL; PHONE NOT ANSWERED:

ur BFF       : He/She IS so busy yaar...

ur CRUSH : OMG am being avoided!!

03. TELLING YOU NOT TO DO A THING:

parents   : What the hell? don't I have any sort of freedom?

ur LOVE : Such a darling; he/she is really into me!

04. RS 100:

SMALL : When shopping in a mall.

HUGE   : When depositing it in a donation box!!

Back to basics

They say that the "Pen is mightier that the sword". But the problem India faces is that 31% of the population does not know how to use the pen. We have a literacy rate of 69%; well below the world average of 84%. The southern states fare better compared to north.

The education system in India has gone to the dogs, worse still; to the street dogs! The educational system in ancient India was Gurukula. There an individual learnt all the things necessary for his life contrary to the popular belief that only religious scriptures like the Vedas and Upanishads were taught. Although this my not be practical today considering the professional environment; the present education system in India was designed by the erstwhile British colony for clerks. Indians were supposed to do clerical jobs for the "White" back then. We have just improved on it. Theory based education with very little concentration on the practical system is the order of the day. BusinessWeek denigrates the Indian curriculum saying it revolves around rote learning and ExpressIndia suggests that students are focused on cramming.

The educational system which we have now lacks the goal of universal which requires constitutional directive which has become a distant dream, the gains we made in terms of enrollment are set to nil by the high drop out incidence. Hence the ultimate result it has brought is that the number of illiterates in the country continue to remain the same. The extreme inadequacy of infrastructure facilities; as few reports on education have shown the pathetic condition of many of the schools in the country, from which it is evident that the resources available are not enough as in the present scenario it is highly difficult to provide even the basic or minimum facilities to such schools, as the allocation made for education still remains the below recommended average of 6% of the GDP. The public expenditure on education has actually declined from around 3.23 percent of GDP in 2000-2001 to 2.88 percent in the recent times. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), India has the lowest public expenditure on higher education per student in the world.

The system needs a serious facelift. The problem lies in the grass root level. We live in the same country that boasts of premier institutes like IITs, IIMs, IIS on one hand and on the other has one the highest school dropout rates in the world. The graduates today dont know what to do after the completion of their education even if the manage to gather the knowledge required for their professional life. Apart from this the real problem we face is not that of unemployment, but of unemployability. Only one in ten young people have access to tertiary education Out of those who receive higher education, only a quarter of graduates are "employable".

The government on its part has been trying it best to educate the masses by implementing the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - (2001) and now the Right to Education Act - 2010. But do we have a judicial system competent enough to keep a tab on whether these initiatives are carried out as per law ? Now this is a point worth pondering. Even if those are implemented it wont be of much use as there still gender bias prevailing in the curriculum with the females generally being shown as weak and helpless,  and poor facilities in the schools. Also most of the technical education imparted is obsolete which is of no use in the present scenario. 

Education is not filling the brain but training the mind, for this the teachers play a very important role. The teachers must have the potential to invoke the interest in the minds of the students so that they are motivated to learn more and more in their quest of knowledge. For this the firstly the teachers must take interest in their profession and must update their knowledge on a regular basis. Until these happen I can assure that India will still be a developing country 100 years from now!!

Impossible ?? LoL !!

It actually started off as a joke...
First lecture of the day and boring as usual; couldnt even take out the mobile to fiddle as I was sitting on the edge on the aisle in between rows.
I just told my friend lets have fun and start writing with our left hands. So it started. We all were in giggles by looking at our writing.

That lecture passed real quick. I was feeling bored and started doing it the next lecture also. It became a habit. I kept doing it for a week to the frustration of my friends who kept asking me what I wanted to prove. My handwriting started getting better with the left hand and now am on the road to becoming ambidextrous.

The point I would I like to bring out here is that the reason we fail is because we give up after a singe attempt does not fetch the desired result. How many times have we failed in life ?? 10 ? 20 ? 30 ? heh !! We must have failed for thousands of times in life, remember the time when we were learning to walk n talk ? we failed; but never gave up because we didnt know what is to give up. Now that we have grown up, we tend to become more conscious of the people around us and what they would say.

After this I've realised that when we say that we cant do a thing it is not our inability to do it but our lethargy. When we dont achieve a thing its because either we really didnt want it or we have bargained for its price. I've learnt the lesson that i would remember for a loooooong time to come; Impossible is nothing !!

Guts I say...

Generally we humans, specially in this part of the world have the tendency to accept things as they are. We probably mask it behind the excuse that we are very flexible and adapt very easily (remember the Theory of Evolution?).

Even when we feel that something is wrong, we pacify ourself by saying that its just a matter of time before we GET USED TO IT. Sometimes we feel the injustice around us but are passive in thinking the someone else will fix the issue and go around with "lets save our A** till then" attitude. And once in a blue moon when our conscience is awakened and we really are burning with the desire to fight (read: fighting with the back against the wall), we suddenly find the whole world turned against us, because all the others are just like what we have been till now.

Then we require a commodity that is in great paucity 'GUTS'. Guts is when we stick to a thing we do even when he world is against us. Now here is an example of guts.

I have no words to explain his guts. Think the PM can act? He would not be allowed to act. The country has already gone to dogs. I don't think we have anything else to lose.



*/LETTER OF EDITOR OF TIMES OF INDIA TO PRIME MINISTER/*




Dear Mr Prime minister,


I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that.
Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years have passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meet him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India.


Enough is enough. As such after seeing terrorist attack carried out by about a dozen young boys I realize that if same thing continues days are not away when terrorist will attack by air, destroy our nuclear reactor and there will be one more Hiroshima.


We the people are left with only one mantra. Womb to Bomb to Tomb. You promised Mumbaikar Shanghai - what you have given us is Jalianwala Baug.


Today only your home minister resigned. What took you so long to kick out this joker? Only reason was that he was loyal to Gandhi family. Loyalty to Gandhi family is more important than blood of innocent people, isn't it?


I am born and bought up in Mumbai for last fifty eight years. Believe me corruption in Maharashtra is worse than that in Bihar. Look at all the politicians, Sharad Pawar, Chagan Bhujbal, Narayan Rane, Bal Thackray, Gopinath Munde, Raj Thackray, Vilasrao Deshmukh all are rolling in money. Vilasrao Deshmukh is one of the worst Chief minister I have seen. His only business is to increase the FSI every other day, make money and send it to Delhi so Congress can fight next election. Now the clown has found new way and will increase FSI for fisherman so they can build concrete house right on sea shore. Next time terrorists can comfortably live in those house, enjoy the beauty of sea and then attack the Mumbai at their will.Recently I had to purchase house in Mumbai. I met about two dozen builders. Everybody wanted about 30% in black. A common person like me knows this and with all your intelligent agency & CBI you and your finance minister are not aware of it. Where all the black money goes? To the underworld isn't it? Our politicians take help of these goondas to vacate people by force. I myself was victim of it. If you have time please come to me, I will tell you everything.


If this has been land of fools, idiots then I would not have ever cared to write you this letter. Just see the tragedy, on one side we are reaching moon, people are so intelligent and on other side you politicians have converted nectar into deadly poison. I am everything Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Schedule caste, OBC, Muslim OBC, Christian Schedule caste, Creamy Schedule caste *only what I am not is INDIAN.* You */_politicians have raped every part of mother India by your policy of divide and rule._/*


Take example of former president Abdul Kalam. Such an intelligent person, such a fine human being. You politicians didn't even spare him. Your party along with opposition joined the hands, because politicians feel they are supreme and there is no place for good person.


Dear Mr Prime minister you are one of the most intelligent persons, most learned person.. Just wake up, be a real SARDAR. First and foremost expose all selfish politicians. Ask Swiss bank to give names of all Indian account holders. Give reins of CBI to independent agency. Let them find wolf among us. There will be political upheaval but that will be better than dance of death which we are witnessing every day. Just give us ambient where we can work honestly and without fear. Let there be rule of law. Everything else will be taken care of.


Choice is yours Mr Prime Minister. Do you want to be led by one person or you want to lead the nation of 100 Crore people?






Prakash B Bajaj.
Editor Mumbai -Times of India,
Chandralok 'A" Wing, Flat 104,
97, Nepean Sea Road,
Mumbai - 400 036,
Phone : 98210-71194 98210-71194.


But the action taken always comes with a price, sometimes to high to be paid; The outcome, sometimes not worth the risk taken personally. Yet some do it for the greater good. Lets tread that path...