Bedu' world

There was once a time...

2010-10-22T20:29:00.001-07:00

There was once a time

When problem-solving meant telling your mom

When your parents had all the answers

And all your fears they could make fine

There was once a time

When the small joys of a candy bar

Would make you forget your tears

And make you forgive all who have hurt

There was once a time

When home works were the toughest things around

When getting a few more marks

Was God’s answer to all your prayers

There was once a time

When you wanted to fly a plane

To be an fighter pilot

And soar into the sky.

That time is, however past

Taking away all but some beautiful memories

The world has grown bigger, our hopes smaller

A salute to you – the child in us.

New age careers (Part 1 ) - Facebook "like"r / "comment"or

2010-08-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

These posts will be a series of discussion on emerging careers and how to prepare for them. Constructive criticism is welcomed.
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1. Facebook liker/commenter
This field is expected to see rapid growth in the coming years.
Job Description:
-Like facebook comments
-Add witty lines, which bring in more comments
-Increase the cool quotient of your client
-Find out cool youtube videos
-A hot babe/hunk profile pic depending on the target client

The basic model only involves like/WOW/LOL and ROFL. However clients can go for an upgrade by paying a yearly fee. This will involve cool comments and cool youtube video links. There ius also a premium version which allows poems and quotations from eminent historical figures, as well scoring lower than the clients in cool games.Generally people start as a "like"r and builds up a practice and client base. Over time, he or she can move into comments.

Seeing the potential, Facebook has decided to offer certification program for liker , advanced liker and commentors. It involves MCQ wherein the examinee has to choose the most coolest option. Given the steep difference between demand and supply, many unofficial certification have also sprung up which cater to the local tastes and niche markets. For example, India's youth icon/leader and management guru Arindhaam Chaudhrii has urged people to think beyond facebook and register in the 2 years program in IIPM for BSCCM (Bachelor in social commenting and cool management). However we should note the fact that if a person is facebook certified, than facebook wont deactivate your account for any of the link posted/forwarded by that person.

There is a big market. Though the market in US is expanding, experts believe that the future lies in Asia. they are waiting for the censorship to be reduced in China and India. Experts believe that there will be significant outsourcing from Asia to US due to the easy availiability of human resources who can write good English and have easy access to internet. Also the brand "Friend in US" is associated with higher qulality and brand image. Unless India and China get their act, it may result in significant outflow of revenue and may severe impact the service sector.

A tale of two loves...

2010-07-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

He knew this had to happen...life is not fair...choices and turns that we take in our past come to haunt us when we least expect...

2005

X was new and she was the hottest thing in the town.Everyone wanted to know her. The family she came from was very reputed and well to do. He requested his friends to introduce her to him. Yes she was particular about that - some friend had to introduce you to her! Initially he did not know what to do but gradually he got familiar. he thought she was the most wonderful thing ever to happen to him. He fell in love with her within the first week of courtship!

2006

He gradually got used to her. It was routine now. He still adored her but he realized that she was not perfect. Several times when he wanted her she was in accessible. But most of his friends also liked her. So he was happy. He accepted that there was no one better than her for him.

2007

She was losing her initial charm. She now looked old. Sometimes she behaved weirdly. She was drawing all wrong sort of people. The language she was using was gradually getting unrefined and coarse. At times, she annoyed him. But he still loved her.

2008

The relationship was growing difficult. She introduced him to lot of people who he did not know and like. Often he felt that his privacy and independence were affected! He wanted a break...but he was in love with her...He did not know what to do.

He had to come to new place. It was all new. There he met Y.

He had heard of Y as the new hot girl in the block. Everyone was swooning over her! He was sure she was not as good as X. However, many of their mutual friends praised Y over X. Somehow X was behaving oddly - she was so detached and old fashioned now.

He initially felt guilty but he was frustrated with X! Y looked so pretty and easy going....like a breath of fresh air! It was so simple to interact with her. Initially he felt she was very intrusive. But he gradually warmed up and started to enjoy life, again...

He convinced himself that he loved X...he wanted to see how life would be with Y.

2009

X was a shadow of her former self. She remembered her glory days, drinking alone in her gloomy darkness. Her loved one deserted her for Y. Y was pretty, but "So can be I" thought X.

X got a makeover. She wanted to look pretty and get back all the attentions. But she tried to copy Y, rather than focus on her own beauty. She lost. She was laughed at. People made fun of her.

It saddened him. He loved X and he could not bear to see this. But he was much more comfortable with Y now. Sooner or later, Y had to take X's place.

2010

X kept on falling, Y kept on becoming more beautiful. He could not live a moment without Y now. Somehow in the background X loomed around, sulking. But he guessed she also accepted her lot.

July 22 2010: Y replaced X, officially. 482 for Y vs 481 for X. It was the end of a age for him... whether he "like"d it or not, he did not "comment".

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X was Orkut and Y was Facebook, in case you have not got it :) .... I guess its an everlasting love story which will involve new characters like twitter, LinkedIn etc with passage of time...

Contradictions...

2010-07-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

It is a crime to love outside marriage,

but a virtue to stay in a marriage with no love

It is all right to stop people loving in the open,

but entertainment to watch a public fight

It is a sin to think of same sex love,

but a heroic act to kill for ones nation and tribe.

It is unacceptable for government to increase taxes,

but disturbing to skip a meal and think of some starving child

It is wrong for reservations to exist in education,

but valid to deny a job to a person whose background is not right

It is acceptable for boys to have all the fun,

but frowned upon girls who dont dress up their part

It is fun if a foreigner has difficulty with your tongue,

but a disaster if he tries to earn for his life.

It is a problem if a person smokes and drink,

but society understands if he does not allow his wife to earn

It is tiresome to toil and work for change

But it is OK for someone to write and sigh.

Does it take your breath away...And you feel yourself suffocating

2010-05-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Do you know what's worth fighting for?
When it's not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?

Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You're in ruins"

-21 Guns (Greenday)

Its been a habit of late to start writing with a song.But I did not put this song just to continue the trend. I intend to write about it, to dissect it and appreciate it.

I have been born and brought up in a place where its is a luxury to have a week without a bomb explosion, a shootout of someone from a family, which fortunately I don't know, getting killed or maimed. It has been happening for the last 10-20 years. It does not matter who is responsible or who needs to take "revenge"...It just makes me wonder about this song.

I have been away from my state for around 10 years. Thousands of dim eyed idealist have died in the process. Some due to bullets but most due to cynicism. Idealism is scorned, dreams not expected to come true. But you know what is more scary than the death of a dream? It is the death of the collective dream of a society. When society become lethargic and looks for a way to push its worries under and looks for a way to escape.

It was started as the noble fight, but somehow it became a fight. When was this nobility lost or the chivalry lost, no one knows or no one cares. Those who set about to change the world only managed to change themselves. Does it take your breath away, and makes you suffocate?

Everyone suffered and suffers. The ones who set out to change and ones who wanted status quo. Life was never the same. The sense of injustice and deprivation gives birth to idealism as well as a fatalistic view of life. The problem are due to "others" and not due to your incompetence and lethargy. When entire society goes into a dreamless sleep, we should not be surprised at why our dreams did not come true.

How about the idealist who were and are seduced? They fall for it but beyond a time they cannot come out. Its a vicious cycle. They can come out only by damming themselves but to damn themselves is to destroy the very idealism which made them love themselves. How can you love anything else when you hate yourselves? How much can you love yourself when every moment you are trying to ensure you survive?Does the pain out weigh the pride, and you look for a place to hide.

I guess its easy to write and talk about all this by sitting 1000s of mile away in a AC room and typing out a blog in ones free time and listening to Greenday on Youtube. But I guess I will try to keep my idealist in me and not become a cynic at my impotency to change anything.

Life will go on. An entire generation will be scorned at, laughed at or even detested by future generation for failing to improve the society. People will get tired and hungry and desperate. Dreams, now destroyed, will come again, maybe in different form.

But will our generation be able to believe in ourselves that we can change this world?

Job search and arranged marriage...

2010-02-23T19:44:00.000-08:00

"love, feeling, emotions......"

So goes the song from Enigma...Donno why but listening to this song while applying for job (don't ask me which company! I was in auto-form-fill mode) set me off thinking...The similarity between arranged marriage and job hunt!

After all its a marriage "market" is'nt it? And we are on the look out for full time life long employment...not that I am anti or pro arranged (well does it matter???? If you don't get one on your own you go for arranged....so the entire choice is a function of circumstances! ???? Did I hear some one call me a loser!!!! Excuse me, I am a pragmatic man of Science who believes in maximizing his opportunity)

Well lets come back...From an early age we are groomed up...Do this, don't do this blah blah blah! Similarly, from first sem, get a good grade etc etc etc...Dont hang out with "rotten" guys/ gals as it may impact your "name"...Similarly, dont hang out with fun ppl as it will impact your grades!

After all years of hard work ( 16-20 year i guess? any one having better idea?), one is ready for the marriage market...so now on the hunt for a prospective groom/bride....If you are from a reputed family, you have less worries...people will come to your house asking for your hand...in the meantime, you are always told that affairs is bad as it will impact (again) your reputation! So, you are considered the best marriage material if you don't have any "prior" experience or idea how the opposite sex actually behaves!!!!

Now contrast it with studies (i will stick to engineering as i have direct exposure)...After 3-4 years of slog you look out for job...If you are from good college you have campus placements...Meanwhile, dont work "part time" as it may impact your grades! Then you go ahead and get a job...what are your options ? "Tech" or "Software" (seriously, the person who coined these 2 words and thus permanently divided the dream of an aspiring Indian engineer deserves to be stoned to death...)...so we go to work out for companies about which we have little idea but lots of expectations!

Then comes the marketing part...In marriages the marketing "Or girl cooks really well" (which means her mom cooks well) or "The guy does not smoke" (seriously, what makes girls think that a guy will answer NO if a stunner is in front of him and that is like the final question of KBC...)... And you always answer the answer people want to hear...we change our profile depending on the relationship we are looking at...Ditto for job search! "I know C and C++" (meaning i managed to somehow pass the course) or that "I was the captain of the class sports team" (Is there a class sports team? Really!)... Come on, if you have a job sitting in front of you, why do you need to tell the truth...technically speaking (as has been said by the wise), not telling the truth is not same as lying...

Finally, the greatest similarity...When a lesser qualified person gets the gal/guy or in our case, the job!!! "She had a affair in college", "He had less grades than me", "He earned less than me"!!!... I just cant help appreciate the beauty of the intricate working of our societal structure!!!

After doing this mental exercise, i felt happy.... inspite of the worst situation, there is hope in this wide open world...I have been a good person (REALLY!!! Why dont you believe me for once!)... I have not besmirched my name anywhere (no cases of felony, drug use blah blah blah)... Also the place from where i come has a reputation....All will be well!

Wait..I did not mean about marriage!!! GRRR...i am talking about getting a job!

A single foot of lenght ...

2009-11-21T00:05:00.000-08:00

The story of A

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The smell of sweat and blood were all around. A was crouching in his hole...any false move , he would die and all the war will become meaningless for him. He waited , and waited...

This was not how it was supposed to be... The enemy was supposed to be caught unawares...also they were supposed to be lesser in number and most importantly, not equipped with machine guns ! A was cursing why he landed up in this mess!

His friend and comrade B was dead, a single bullet through his head...dead instantly. He was lying, 1 feet away, on his left...

B's story

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One year back...B was graduating from the military school... maybe it was the proudest moment of his life... he felt as if all the war heroes whose pictures adonrned the dorm walls were smilling upon him...his journey was about to begin.

He was called into this conflict 2 months ago. The enemy had occupied a large track of his country. Something had to be done.

A&B 's story

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The colonel decided that the only way out was to send a scout team and get the exact positions of the enemy. It was a risky gamble and he chose the best officers under him - A & B.

A's story

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So he lay, among sweat and blood....but he kept quiet. The enemy did not move in. They were convinced that the intruder was dead.

hours past...and finally it was dark...he crept out of his hole...he took the pictures...he came back and gave a final good bye to B, who was on his right when the bullet hit him...then he left him...

The attack was a success...the enemy position were accurately marked and were destroyed.

A became a war hero. Medals were bestowed upon him....gradually with passage of years, he forgot that he was so close to the bullet that hit B in place of him...after some years, his picture was on the dorm walls, along with other war heroes.

B's story

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Minutes before the bullet hit him...A was on his left...but somehow A did not look comfortable...B figured out that there was no way he could allow A to be uncovered as it will jeopardize the whole mission. So he dragged him to his right and he took the position on A left... It was 1 foot to the left of his earlier place...but he remembered the pictures of all the war heroes and the silent promise he made to them...Sometime later, a sniper who had seen A helmet partially, got a second glance of another helmet. B never had a chance after that.... he was one foot too far in the wrong direction...

Our story

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We read about the awesome military operations and tactical victory in the great war... We read an entire page on the heroic of A... Only place B gets mentioned is as a nameless soldier....when they say "A's entire team was wiped out but he did it alone".

Sometimes... a single foot is a big distance.

The Deadly truth

2009-11-06T15:29:00.000-08:00

Inspired by Orham Pamuk's "My name is Red"!!! :)....

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I am lying amidst the debris of what was 5 minutes ago my body. Now that i could figure out things (its about 5 mins!) i realize that not only am i dead, my body has been splitted into over 10 parts! I am not sure which part of my body is talking - the heart or the head? But since i guess i can see things it is the head. But then again, it might be the soul!! I am so confused... Whoever came up with the cliche "rest in peace"!!!

I guess you are confused what all was happening? My apologies. I was out for shopping in the main market when i was caught up in a bomb explosion. And i died. However, with it, i became supremely aware of all things around me- the past , present and the future! Somehow me not knowing the cause of my death irked me!!! It was like being forced to marry without loving that person. I decided to explore why i died.

The immediate cause was clear. I have been splitted up into several pieces and each part was incapable of independent existence. But why was this done??? dammit... i am going to get to the bottom of it!

I transport myself 5 mins back (i am dead so i can do time travel!!!)... I see what happened... There was this young man, carrying the bag, which had the bomb which after 5 minutes had exploded right under my feet. Now that i see him, i could make out that he was uneasy, excited and looked very cautious! But when i was alive, it seemed so normal! Infact i did not even notice him. But then its no fun. I know what happened in the next few minutes. So i follow the young man 2 days in the past.

I see him in deep conversation with a person in his mid 40s. They looked very intense. I decided to eavesdrop. After all they killed me so i don't think they deserve my decency!

They were talking something about independence, tyranny, oppression and lot of gas! The older guy was somehow trying to motivate the young guy (I wont call him friend since he killed me) to carry "it" out, which i figured out, was planting the bomb. Since my head was in several pieces, i could not figure out how i "thought" but believe me, it's possible!

they were parting way...after some decision, i decided to leave the youg guy and start to follow the older guy. Time travel 2 years in the past!

I was now in a jungle..no wait! not a jungle but a training camp somewhere in the middle of a jungle! Young people were getting trained for.... to be killed or to kill!!! My My My... talking of dying is so easy for people who are alive. Only the dead know what they are missing! But lets not lead you away from my story.

I see the middle age guy in some serious discussion with who looked like his boss, a bald guy who was chain smoking. I could not understand their language. Again i overheard the words Tyranny, oppression and independence. They were talking about how they planned to fight to get independence from the government! I was lost, as i could not figure out why i had to die for this!!! But wait... i heard their plan... they would carry out a major bombing to shake the government and make them accept their demand!!!! Now it was making sense to me!

But why??? The question was not answered yet. So i decided to follow the boss to the past 10 years!

He had lot of hair then and was much more handsome!!!! Seeing this i got a sadistic pleasure (come on i can since he was responsible for my present state)...i saw him as all eager eyed and idle person. He was sitting in a geography class. Or was it a History class??? They had all maps around but these maps were showing historical kingdoms/empire. Or i was in a political science classroom because the teacher was saying lots of stuff about Marx and Lenin etc! WAIT!!!! I was in the middle of a sermon!!! I paused and listened. I was informed how historically "they" were a great kingdom and how the "oppressors" have conquered them!!!!

Now i was good in studies in school but i never heard of all these stories. So i was curious. However, after 5 mins i started yawning (well the soul can yawn believe me)...the guy was saying a lot of crap. 50% stuff was made up or his own interpretation and fables! I was laughing. But then i looked at the class. Everyone was listening in rapt attention!!! I suddenly realised that i was very close to the end of my investigation.

Using my special soul-power, i went inside the mind of the "preacher"...Dude!!! He was not even a class 10th pass!!! He has heard all the stuff he was blabbering from someone else and was just vomiting out! He was talking of a past 500 years ago!!! A past that made no difference to the living!!!

I cant believe this. I died because some idiot had an idea of the past which he successfully passed on to another idiot who then passed it to 3-4 more buffoons which ultimately lead me to my death!!! GRRRRRR.... Bunch of losers!

I might have hated history and geography in school but was big time pissed of it with it now! How nice it would have been if people did not care about history and geography so much and concentrated just on making a better lives for themselves!!! DAMMIT.... I might have been alive today!!!

A question of freedom!

2009-07-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

I was having a email converstaion with a person who was working in a NGO. It was at that time when Tata's had not pulled out of Singur. The person was defending the rights of farmers and was saying that the main question is about freedom of choice! I disagreed with him...but it set me thinking...What exactly is freedom?

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15th Aug 1947, India won her freedom. It was a tectonic shift. 1/6th of humanity became FREE!!! was it? really?

I must make it clear that i dont intend to discuss about the freedom and socio-economic inequality existing. I am more interested in analysing it from a individual viewpoint.

Are we free? People may be shocked that i am even asking this question! Of course we are, they will say! Remember the British Raj!!! But this is waht i think is weird... Our concept of Freedom is symbolised by Political freedom!

People will disagree. They will say that one has the freedom to be what he or she wants! Its upto the individual to achieve. I disagree!!

Let us start with the big things in life. We are not free to decide our race, our nationality, our mother tongue etc etc etc! I may sound crazy but keep up with me. We are not even free to decide which name society should call us! Well we can change our name and stuff, officially!!! But to do it i have to spend time n effort and resources in a gov office and more time and effort and resources to let people know my new name!!!Is it freedom then! I dont think so.

I can continue with so many things we are not "FREE" to do! But it does not make sense ne may say- these things are fact and we cannot alter them! Exactly, thats my point. We are not as free as we like to think we are!

I can continue with multiple things. After doing an exhaustive search of most important things that define us, i can finally come up with the top 5 things we are free to do! 1) Choose our career 2) Marry the person we want 3)Our religion 4) Our favourite food and dress 5) Political freedom!

Dont cry out that i a pessimist!!!

Here too, we have multiple constraints that ensures that we excercise our freedom in a very restricted field!

Take career for example. Are we really free to decide on it? Well we have the choice to pick one career out of 40-50 listed out and approved by socio-economic parameters! To get about this, we have invented one more term called "Hobby"!!! Ya we are much more free to decide on our hobby than our careers, though socio-economic constraints also limit our choice, albeit to a lesser exent!

Marriage??? well i wont even discuss about it as it will take up too much space!!!

Religion? Well we have the freedom to believe or not to believe. But if we look into it carefully, you often have to give up this freedom to ensure you enjoy the benefits of social life.

Dress and food? Well we have a degree of personal choice. But almost 60% of stuff is off limits! Wearing your underwears outsides, or having elephant-meat for dinner, will ensure that lots of your other "freedoms" are curtailed!

Finally, our definition of freedom is only about political freedom! Well, less said about it the better!!!

In a nutshell, 90% of the stuff that define us, that make us, are not decided by us!!!! Are we really free???

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This is the most pessimistic article i have ever written. However, i think we often confuse between freedom and equality. All "freedom" movements are actually movements to ensure that people get equal rights and oppurtunities, rather than ensuring individual freedom.

on Racism and a global conspiracy

2009-06-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

TOI, Hindu, DNA and Hindustan Times are in a race to racism! Ausssies beware...Since India is a future superpower, you are jealous of us as u cannot compete with us in the race! Moreover, since we beat Aussies in cricket and we became the T 20 champs, the aussies are seething with humiliation and the entire country is taking it out on singular unsuspecting Indian students!

However, i personally think that the Aussies are not the only one involved. In the CPM Vijayan - Lavlin case, it has been been implied that CIA is behind the framing of Vijayan as US imperialists want to destroy one of the last bastions of communism! Amazing vision , for if the comrades had not told me such, i would never have been able to find the connection between Vijayan and CIA.

Coming back to the topic, i see a CIA hand in the Indian bashing in down under (down under as in Aussie land and not that down under). The evil imperialists dont want us to progress. Since Slumdog millionaire won the Oscar, they have been trying to get back us. The question was how and where.

They could not beat us in sports! They do not play cricket well, and we do not play anyother game well. So if we lose, there wont be any humiliation for us. Who would ever watch a US-India basketball match? Even if Ekta Kapoor produces such a "Klassic" match, do you think the Indian ladies will watch it? Even if India loses the match 110-0, there wont be headlines in TOI, No crowd will go and destroy the players homes, nor will there be demands for removal of captain (one reason maybe we dont even know the name of the captain of the Indian Basketball team).But what about cricket. US had three staunch allies in Australia Pakistan and England. But of late, India, due to its emerging economic status, have been walloping them left right and center, in the cricket field. In a nutshell, CIA realised that it cannot hurt us in sporting arena.

Economically too, Western powers were shit scared of India. They tried to put us down but saying 80% of our population was below poverty line. But this hitting down under (this time body part) did not affect us. To counter this, we produced Bollywood movies, where we showed Indians as rich dudes, who fly around in choppers. Also we showed that all whites were in awe of the cool desi dude! They even danced in our songs. So economically too, we downplayed them.

Frustrated, the CIA decided that it would hit us where it will hurt us most - down under (this time i mean the body part as well as Aussie). As a part of the global conspiracy, they started to attack the future of India. Their diabolical plan was to hit at every indian, when they expected the backlash and reaction to be the least - ie when IPL and T20 world cup is on. They decided that they would finish of this operation quickly and then move to their next india destabilising excercise - making CPM and Vijayan look corrupt in the Lavlin case.

Unfortunately, the CIA miscalculated the power of Indian Media! The mighty alliance TOI, Hindu, DNA and Hindustan Times was formed to counter the greatest threat to Indian culture since Danny Boyle produced Slumdog millionaire. If one indian was taunted and attacked in a mall, they ensured it got the front page headline. Obiously this was more important than 12 cops getting killed by Maoist or Deeepika Padukone getting kissed by whats-his-name Kapoor or the ongoing protests in Kashmir. The later are all domestic problems and dont involve a global conspiracy. Clearly unnerved, the CIA bosses packed their bags and made way to the sandy beaches of Kovalam.

Also, the aussies got s*** scared. Realising that they will be screwed by India in the T20 finals, they ensured that they crashed out in the early stages.

Karna...

2009-03-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Since childhood, i had been intrigued by the character of Karna...somehow, he never fitted into any stereotype...he was not black nor was he white... Who was he? Why was he there in the Mahabharata? Is he the ultimate "Tragic hero" of Greek plays, who were put down by fate? Or was he more of a Shakespeare "Hamlet" type character, who did not make the right choices at the right time?

I decided to read his story again...after so many years, i was able to understand his story, finally.

Karna was born to Kunti, who decided to experiment her new found power of concieving with her choice of Alpha males. The process ensures she remained a virgin after the birth. However, Kunti never had the courage to face the society as an unwed mother (As i realised then, the same Kunti became such a protective mother to her step sons! Did this change in her motherhood status come due to the fact that she was now married and thus society cannot cast aspersions on her?).

He was reared by a non kshatriya charioter. Talented Karna wanted to study at the best institute of the day (the academy of Drona). However he was denied admission on "reverse quota system". Frustrated, he decided to forge his caste certificate and thus got admitted in the institute of Parhuram. Unfortunately, he was so so devoted to his guru that he did not cry out in pain when a bee bit him. Instead of rewarded for such devotion, Karna was cursed (in effect his degree was not awarded!!!). All along, he knew something was wrong. But he did not crib.

Then he heard about a great contest that was being helt at Hastinapur. Here all the princes, particularly the prodigy Arjun would showcase their valor. Believing that the only thing that mattered was real talent, Karna set forth to participate.

There he exceled. But he was insulted, humiliated and put down by the most learned people of the kingdoms with racist and casteist comments. Kunti realised it was her son but she did not have the courage to accept him (I believe this was a critical point. Had she shown a bit more courage, millions of lives could have been saved. Karna would have been acceptable to all as the eldest brother). Duryodhana (either out of admiration or seeing his future potential) stood up for him and made him the king of Anga. Maybe this was the first time anyone had appreciated Karna for who he was. Thus, he decided to remain loyal to Duryodhana.

But things did not change. Thought he was a king, Draupadi refuses to marry him, even though he had won the contest (It was like rejecting a person for a job because of his caste, even though he was most qualified). Finally, when Kunti decides to approach him, it is not because she suddenly realised her maternal instincts for him. rather it was a case of her maternal instincts for her five other sons. Inspite of all that he had faced, he agrees to most of her request. His greatest action is when he refuses to take the crown and instead remain loyal to Duryodhana. Similarly, Lord Indra also makes him give up his armour and Karna, knowing the consequences, obliges. In the battle, his valor is known. He is finally killed in a clear violation of the rules of war.

True he was not a spotless person, say like Yudhisthira (which again is debatable)! Karna's behaviour during the Dice game was not proper, particularly his treatment to Draupadi. Also, he himself broke the rules to kill Abhimanyu.

But he was the true hero. He always had to fight in his life (unlike the other who were princes), for no fault of his own. Maybe his purpose was to serve as a tragic hero in the Mahabharata. But , he also made many wrong choices (Taking the crown from Pandavas as advised by Kunti, giving up his armour etc). He is a character, who took life as it came to him. That is his importance in the Mahabharata. He makes it believable. He is a real flesh and blood charatcter. The Pandavas and Kauravas are one dimensional characters (either good or bad), with a fixed sets of virtues and vices. They had no troubled childhood or any identity crisis. The older generation of Bhisma and Drona are shown as idealist. Their view of things were narrow and sometimes slavish (they did not protest during the dice game. Later on they agree to all demands of Duryodhana). Karna is the only person in Mahabharata whose actions are based on his own judgements and how society treated him. Before the war, he knows that they are going to lose (as he says to Krishna). But still he decides to go ahead.

Maybe he was a failure; but the only reason i wish to read the Mahabharata again is because of Karna. The characted developement was way ahead of its time. We can identify the pain and suffering he must have faced for no fault of his own. But inspite of all hardship, he believed in himself and excelled. A person who was never given the due respect by his contempories but who, neverthe less have outshone them in the long run. Thousands of years later, we are still fascinated by him!

"Slumdog Millionaire"

2008-12-31T13:43:00.000-08:00

Yashraj Production presents

"SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE"

Directed by Karan Johar

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Jamal Malik (Zayed Khan) is 1 question away from 2 crore rupees! How did he do it?

The movie opens i a police station. The police inspector (Johny Lever) is puzzled. How did this poor guy, who is surprisingly dressed in Gucci clothes, know all the answer! Jamal looks at him and gives the smile . "its written." he says...... this is followed by name casting.

We are taken back to slums of Bombay (it was Bombay then) where young Jamal is playing cricket. Surprisingly, they are using "NIKE" cricket bats and are dressed in NIKE shoes. Young Jamal (played by Aditya Chopra's nephew) is a smart kid. Though 9 years old, he fools adults! His gang has his brother salim (played by Karan Johar Nephew), a cute sardarji with his turban, a parsee guy (who is fully outfitted in traditional dress) and a girl called latika (played by Rani Mookerjee's neice). Latika is an orphan who stays with the brothers.They are smart kids as seen in "Kuch Kuch hota hai". However, suddenly they break out into a song, wherein we witness all the mischieveous tricks they play on the elders. At the end of the song, the frame changes.

The 2 brothers and Latika then go home to their mother, who had made warm dinner for them, though she works as a domestic maid, she is dressed up well with complete make up. However, to make her seem authentic, the director in a master stroke had added a black scar across he face. She puts them to sleep. On the wall, they have a picture of their deceased father. As the boys sleep, she thinks of the past.

The story now turns fascinating! She was not always a poor girl. She was a well to do lady but the corrupt business partner of her husband, who has 6 fingers in his hands, had robbed them! The film,through a song, takes us to Switzerland, Australia and some part of Africa as she and her dead husband sing and dance. However, the evil partner lusts after her body and her husbands property. When the song is done, they realise that they are penniless. Her husband dies while trying to save her "izzat", falling off a cliff.

Now, she is facing other problems. The local goon has set his eyes on her and as expected, lusts after her. It does not help matters as she always goes around dressed in deep cleavage and body hugging outfits. The local goon, though works for the big Don in Dubai. Inspite of all hardship, she ensures that her kids go to school daily in starched white uniforms! Jamal is the bright kid.

Time goes on. One day the local goon tries to rape her. After showing in graphic detail the rape scene, we are shown how she manages to escape by hitting his eyes. She just has time to make the kids escape. Just as the goon closes in, she kills herself to preserve her purity.

The movie moves forward. The 3 kids, dressed smartly, do petty job. But they all sneak into schools and study under street lights. Now and then, they hum the tune that their mom used to sing with their father. One day, they see the goon who killed their mom. Salim kills him. In the ensuing melee, jamal loses the other 2.

10 years pass. Jamal (now played ny Zayed Khan) works in a call center. Though he is a Chai waala, he is respected by all for his intellect and wisdom. The managers hold him in high esteem and he solves everyones problem. All the call centers female executive (surprisingly all dressed as sluts) plot to get his attention. However, he still loves Latika. This is shown to the audience through a foot tapping item number done by Kareena Kapoor.

Jamal has an idea. He decides to play his family song on radio city. Radio city accepts and on hearing it, Salim (now played by Shahruk Khan) rushes to the station (the time interval for jamal singing, Salim hearing and arriving at the station has been kept at 4 mins). The two brothers embrace as the teary eyed radio city staff look on.

Jamal finds out about Salim. Salim is now the right hand man of the Dubai based gangster. He is rich. Jamal decides to stay with him. He finds out about Latika (Rani Mookherjee). She is now a Bar dancer. Though she is thought as a low woman, she is still pure and virgin. Every morning, she walks around the tulsi plant (always dressed in a body hugging, tight , wet white sari). Latika manages to keep all evil man away from her. She had waited for Jamal. The moment Jamal is about to kiss her, she forgets all about her longing and starts singing.

In this now perfect world, dark clouds loom. The dubai based Don returns and sees latika. As expected, he lusts after her. Salim is in confusion. His girlfriend (played by Priyanka Chopra), who is a prostitute with a heart of gold advises him to leave everything and run away. Jamal realises that the only way he can solve this is by winning a lot of money. So he decides to play KBC.

We then jump into the present. After sometime in the Police Station, jamal slips into a coma. The doctors tells them that they cannot save him now and only God can work out some miracle. After this, we see a song where Latika is praying in a temple, salim is in a mosque and Salims Girlfriend is in a church. When they all simultaneously finish singing their songs, jamal wakes up and is ready for KBC.

The Don realises that if Jamal wins KBC, he will lose Latika. So he decides to attack the KBC station. When they reach there, however, they find Salim baring their way. The Don tries to win him over. Suddenly Salim sees that the Don has 6 fingers on his hands. He realises that this was the same person who had robbed their property. The Don relishes and says he will wipe out the entire family today. But no such luck. Salim wipes out the entire gang. But he takes a fatal shot as he is killing the Don. badly hurt, he staggers inside.

Inside, Jamal is about to answer the last question. It is then the Quiz master (Amitabh Bachan) sees an open locket dangling from Jamal's neck. He is shocked and asks him how he got that locket. He is all teary eyed as Jamal tells him that his dead mom had given it to him. By then jamal also answer the last question correctly and wins the prize. Latika comes and hugs him. The quiz master than reveals, to the shock of everyone, that he is their father. He tells him how he tried to search for his mother but never found her after he came out of the hospital after falling from the cliff.

The scene is broken by Salim staggering inside in a pool of blood. The audience sitting inside sit in rapt attention as a family reunion takes place. After talking to everyone for 5 mins, Salim dies in Jamals arm. Before he dies, he finds out that his girl friend is pregnant with his child. As he dies, the sad version of the family song is played.

Finally, we have the marriage of jamal and Latika, both dressed in traditional Punjabi outfit. Their is song and dance, while salims girl friend keeps on thinking about him. Finally, the song is over. The director fast forwards us to the future. We see all of them in a hospital room, with Latika holding her newborn baby and Jamal holding her. They decide to name it salim. As they dim out, the family song plays in the background.

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This is a sure contender for best movie, best direction, best actors and best actress at the Filmfare awards.

A Bird eye view....

2008-12-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

I went for my grocery shopping a few days back...while i was waiting for my bus, i noticed something strange...it is worth writing about....

I was a very cold day...the previous day has been even colder...Because of that, the birds were behaving strangely.... there were thousands and thousands of birds in a a small area, just flying randomly in groups.... in fact the whole sky looked full of birds...they came, sat on an electricity line, then flew away, came again...it was very fascinating to see this....suddenly i observed something peculiar....

I am no Ornithologist, a person who studies birds.... Also all my prior experience of "Bird watching" were totally off the track!!! so i started this exercise without any prior bias...

Next time you see a large flock of birds sitting on a cable, you will observe that 90-100 % of the birds sit facing the same direction!!!! Agreed its not a path breaking observation...but i could not ignore the beauty of it....it looked so planned and much more sophisticated arrangement than a simple "bird brain" thought!!! I decided to observe it for some more time...

As the number of birds kept on increasing, the probability that the new bird will sit facing the popular direction increased...infact, after some time, i could have bet thousand rupees that the next bird will sit in which fashion!!! it was strangely funny... closer examination....i saw an even more funny thing...a new bird who come to the line can approach it in any direction...he then takes a right turn and comes and sits in the "normal" way.... if he sits in the opposite way, HE OR SHE ACTUALLY LOOKS AROUND, and changes the position.....I know all this sounds weird...I suggest you can try this excercise on your own and i am confident that you will come out with the same results!!!

Then one more thought hit me...why this is so? I could think of only two possible reason... One that there is some source of stimulus (like sunlight) in that particular direction, or secondly, it is just herd instinct!!!I think it is a combination of both the factor...then again there is something else i noticed.... the birds did not necessarily search for places where their allignment towards the maximum stimulus would be optimized!!!!! (I hope you are still with me....If u think this guy is going way over board with his birdy thing, i can understand!!!).... Like if you have 2 parallel cable across the road, birds on both side will face each other and the road!!!

Then i thought wheteher everything depended on how the first bird who came sat down.... unfortunately i could not observe this...but i could make an extrapolation.... if the first bird came and sat down in a particular manner, the probability is 90% that the next bird will sit in the same manner. For the third bird, it will be 95% and we can keep on going ahead!!!! btw dont quothe the figures anywhere!!!!!

Now, why does the first bird choose a particular direction? Here i think stimulus plays a part....I refuse to accept it that it is a total random event! The first bird has all possible options to choose from and he chooses the one that best suits him...the stimulus may be weak, but it may push him or her towards a particular orientation....what follows next i have already discussed!!!

Funny..... I think this is exactly how our traditions, culture and ethics developed... At one point somewhere in the past, the first person or first group of who came to a place started following a practice.... The other who came later copied them!!!

Audacity of Hope...

2008-10-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

I start my story...

Anecdote 1:

When i was in bangalore, i used to go office through a busy throughfare called Commercial Street. I passed this part anytime between 9-10 Am (this time being a linear function of the time i get up!). However, whenever i went past this place at around 9.10-9.15, i would see this particular sight. It was a Muslim family, pushing a cart of some fruits. Not that the frruits were any special to look at. The family comprised of the Dad, Mom and a kid. The father looked haggard and old. The lady was always in a Burqa so i was never able to judge her age. But it was the kid i noticed. He was always dressed in white shorts, white shirts and a green tie - a school uniform. He would be there, pushing the cart along with his parents, trying to negotiate that big cart in the midst of the bikes cars. I never talked to him (well, guess its called class barrier!!! LOL). But, i would always look for them if the time was right. Why? I seriously dont know but i found that kid very inspiring. He was helping his parents in earning , and at the same time not giving up going to school. Infact, by the way he dressed up, i could see that he was very serious about the whole "school-business"! it was so sweetly romantic... if this kid from nowhere can dream of a bright future, can't this "well brought up" guy dream of bigger things!

Anecdote 2:

This was recounted to me by my freinds. He was telling me the story of a girl he met at the canteen. Let me call her Jane (Well ! I kin of like dat name!) Jane is a school going kid in Texas, US, around 17. But this cute gal leads a very interesting life... She goes to school, does well in acads, and als0o works and earns living for her family. Why? Well her Mom is disabled and i assume her father is not with them. So she has to earn and pay the bills. She work in a cafeteria ..She wants to go to college but she does not have the money. So she is planning to work for a year after school to save some money. Life is not easy for her, but she hopes for a better future! In her privacy, she may complain that all this hardship is unfair, but she wont stop at that... She knows what she wants to and where she wants to go...

Anecdote 3:

His father was an international student from a a poor african country and his mom was a white girl from Wichita, Kansas. His father returned back to his nation, when he was a young. His mom then married an Asian and they shifted to Indonesia. There, he spent ten years of his life. In due course, his mother died of cancer. He came back to the US. He had no Godfather here, but he did not give up. He tried hard and got into Harvard Law School. I wont try to maintain any suspense here - He is barrack Obama. From there onwards, everyone knows the story! Ya, i copied my title from his book "the Audacity of Hope"....

I cant help smiling when i think of all this...there is something in us that does not allow us to think that our future is going to bleak!!! However dark the present may be, there will be a flicker of light somewhere which will still keep on dragging onwards!...defies common sense...we may define it as survival instinct or love for life!!!Hope.... something that makes us wait for tomorrow!!! The beauty of hope, the foolishness hope, the courage of hope, the optimism of hope......the audacity of hope!!!

"To the moon and back..."

2008-10-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

First of all, I want to point out that the title is a direct copy of one my favourite songs by Savage Garden...But i felt nothing would be a more apt title!

Last Sunday was one of the most memorable days in my life... I went on a visit to the Johnson Space Center of NASA in Houston, Texas...Also, India is launching its first lunar mission this week...I am literally over the moon with all these developments!!!

Why? Should i be happy? well read on!I am shamelessly biased in favor of space exploration...

Since 1958, NASA has been a pioneer in space exploration...Along with the Soviets, they paved the way for the future generations..at the Johnson Space Center, the history of space travel is well documented... While one walks through the galleries, one does not feel jealous of US of feel indimidated by their technologies... As one looks into the faces of smiling men and women in spacesuits from the picture frames, one cannot help smiling back!!! its not a feeling of inferiority one feels...rather one gets the feeling that we humans have achieved something! It may sound like corny and phony socialism but looking at them makes one feel proud at the technological progrees humanity has made.
We were taken to the place where astronauts are trained, where missions are controlled (yes..there is an actual room like "Houston Calling!") and the rockets that carried humans to the moon...It was so inspiring... There were some kids who were always lifting their hands when someone asked "who wants to be an astronauts?"! I remembered my own childhood when i dreamt ( and i think everyone does) of being a pilot or an astronaut and flying! how time flies...i really envied them, for my elevated status as an "adult" did not entitle me to some simple child like priviledges!
Then there is the human story...how normal people become astronauts (Warning!!! they are not so normal..they have impressive resumes!!)...how they are trained and how they are ready to take all risks willingly... They have rigorous training for 3 years but the most difficult part is, as one lady-astronauts put it "...is the last week before blast off, when you have to say bye to your family, not knowing if you will see them again"...It was such a beautiful expression...afterall, they are not that out-of the world person!
Again, the immense respect given to the departed...for every every astronaut who died, a tree is planted...The name Columbia often comes up and is one of the most tragic days in their history... they play a speech by Bush when one reaches that memorial spot "... We choose the best among us to go out and discover for us...these brave men and women knew the risk they were taking and they took it willingly..." he sums up nicely when he says that if we stop space exploration because of such an incident, we will be sacrificing the very cause for which they died!!!
I fully support India going for the lunar mission-as a a man of science,as a citizen and as a rational person...Maybe 800 Mn of us are below poverty line....but to say that is like saying that our cricket players should not go to Australia or to say that "No more IITs and give money to poor"... I can argue for a whole day on the merits of the lunar mission, technically, but i dont want to do that as i am more drawn out to the human angle... the most valid reason, i feel , has been given by an ISRO official .."It will draw talented youngsters to scientific research and space and aerounautical engineeering"...When this happens, maybe i ll type my blog from the moon in a few years!!!!
I know that there are many people who claim that moon landing was a hoax and blah blah... they have some convincing agruments... My reasoning is simple...proving that US did not land on moon does no one any good except some petty nationalistc person... but knowing that a HUMAN has set foot on the moon- that means something to ME, and i think to many of us...The first Appolo mission was destroyed, killing all astronauts inside the rocket in the fire... these people were the best we as humans had to offer....if we claim that all this is a hoax and these "best"people, with the best technology humans had invented had failed, and We actually did not land on the moon, we are actually looking down on ourselves...the choice is ours...

I once read an story of how several british officers helped 3 british officers helped escape from a German POW camp during WWII... only 3 escaped, but all the officers were over the "moon" on successfull completion of the project.... At that time i thought how was this possible...but i think i understand it now...I may not know the person who goes to space.....but i know that somehow it has been the collective efforts of all humanity that has made possible for one of us to break free of restraints like gravity and soar!!! Only a few may have actually gone to space, but each of them is a story of human success...human being refused to be bogged down immense ans seemingly unsurmountable hurdles nad perform "Earth-defying" adventures!!!! Yes, to the moon and back....

No mans land....

2008-08-23T21:22:00.001-07:00

I left for US last month. The thought i penned while sitting at Indira Gandhi International Airport...

"An idle mind is a devils workshop...so people they say.. i have my flight at 2.30 in the morning and i have 3 more hours!!! 3 more hours and i don't have anything to do n too scared to sleep!!! so this idle mind decided to write....
Frankly, i don't understand why i am feeling so low on leaving India.. i don't want to sound being unpatriotic!! jus i wanted to understand... what is a nation, or a country...
i mean, what is India or what is USA - A political entity, bounded by clearly demarcated geographical boundaries, and added to it a good deal of socio-economic, military, historical and religious factors... add all this together and we get it - The birth of a Nation!!!
Not that i am a cynic... i and jus trying to examine something in detail - something that i have taken for granted always...theoritically then, me leaving one geographical confinement for another should not make me feel down... but in actual, the fact that maybe i wont be able to come back here for some years was upsetting... i was like a doctor who has broken his leg... he knows what is causing the pain, but this knowledge does not reduce the pain!!! OR, was my definition of a nation wrong???
This geographical and cultural concept also raises some serious question..to what extent are we moulded by our surroundings? Am I an indian because i was born in this country? suppose i was born in US or say i was a Paki... would i have been different? would i have still liked the same tastes, the same colours ar the same type of music? Would i have liked Rock and blues if i was born in US? I dont know the answer...
one more flaw that i am observing in the geographical model is that the nation then becomes a function of time... patriotism, limited by the view of nation in such model then becomes extremely fuzzy...suppose we take the case of a soldier from Tamil Nadu, who died for undivided india who died protecting Sindh. So is he a patriot? think about it... he was a fellow born in India who died protecting Pakistan.. In todays scene, he will be called a traitor, a spy etc etc etc..but we know he is an Indian patriot... the fallacy in the argument is obvious... then we have to accept that geography model needs serious correction...
so what is a nation - a concept? a philosophy? a way of life?... a nation is a concept no doubt, but there is much more to it ... it is not a philosophy like Marxism... I think nation is a way of life...the way ones goes about his or her day to day life.. makes sense? actually does not much to me but thats the only option left my method of elimination!!! but i makes sense... i am missing india because i will be leaving a lifestyle with which i was very familiar... i was venturing into a world whose lifestyle was not the sane as mine...
However, though it made sense, it seemed very simplistic... if it was a way of life, why did i feel happy when India won T-20 cup? why i feel elated when Tata buys Corus? do people can die or take life for a way of life??? well i don't know..."
I dont wan tthis to be read as an article as it was never meant to be one... i had extracted it from my diary because i felt its something many people might have felt... i don't want the answer because i know that there is no correct answer for my question....

Another day at work....

2008-07-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

I was born into a poor middle class family and from a young age i decided that i will follow my heart... some of my relatives told me to be a doctor blah blah blah... but NO!!! I was the owner of my destiny... boldly, i set out to reach for the sky....

After some time in my profession, i was the darling kid... people used to extol my goodness... i was told that i was the best thing ever to happen in My Field!!! sigh!!! when has good times lasted for ever... Calamity, like "Direct Marketing" agents, seldom come invited....

It all started one fine day... i just got out of my bed when one of my collegues handed over the paper... after getting over the fact that some one was interested ever to read about what colour underwear i liked to wear (yes... i was amazed!!!), i started reading... it was written by one so called expert in my profession (well he had no on-site or field experience, so he must have become an expert by studying it... that must make him preety fundoo as i was always dumb in acads...).. he was saying "the bottom section of my working implement was was 3/19 ounch heavier and its shape was slight parabolic than circular than regular ones. This in turn was impacting my concentration level, preventing from giving my best to blah blah blah..." WOW!!! that was amazing!!! I never new my work was so complicated....i made me feel so happy... as they say, everything is planned...

Unfortunately , knowing about this extra bit of wisdom did not help me greatly... my performance in job went a few notches lower... However, the expert got lot of adulation... people wanted to read him!!!! My My My... i must be a fool... it was so simple and even then i could not understand!!!

Even before all these things were over, one of my ex collegues started to say about me "he is very slow at his work . His other collegues have to shield him from critical activities" !!! bullshit... that guy was never considered as a permanent employee!!! and the amazing thing of all - People actually listened to him!!! I cant believe this!!!!

Now it was the turn of one of my collegues who had retired by the time i joined "well, the problem is his attitude.. he takes things lightly... he does not take responsibility"..well done buddy!!! this same guy was one who was never able to finish his task regularly at his time!!! still, people listened to him!!! this is bad? Wait, the worst was to come.......

Mr Le-Jan Chalu-wala was next... "This boy was born when Sagitarrius was in the cycle of Leo, which has resulted in Mercury and Mars influencing his concentration... he should resign from his job... else he will be kicked out"...I went mad when i read this!!! how come Mr watever stars are always in order and ppl like me have screwd up stars???? Again people believed him...and lo- my friends asked me to perform pujas!!!!

Next in line - "u shud add an extra "E" in your name... this will add up to the magic number of 9..then u will regain your lost concentration...." Dude, does he ever know wat pain its is to change ur passport in India??? Change my name!!! Again, people lapped up wat he said...so did my frens....

Next - "you should not wear red colour clothes etc, etc, etc...." & "you should fast on this day" & etc etc etc..... lots of people listened!!!

Unfortunately, for all doomsday prophecies , i disappointed them... next day at work, i finished a very difficult project..... SUCCESSFULLY!!!

Expert - "the unique nature of his working implement was responsible... u should see how he finishes things in a flourish.."
Ex-collegue - "i always knew he would bounce back... he is such a great person"
Ex-retired-collegues - "he has tha wonderful attitude"
Mr Le-Jan Chalu-Wala - "Presently Aires is in cycle of Libra, so Jupiter and Saturn are having a positive effect"
Numerologist - "his family name adds up to 7, hich is equal to his Birth day... this will ensure that he has everlasting success"
Others - "he will be succesfull if he wears maroon"/"success will never leave him if he eats veg on this day"...hahahahaha... amazing things... people still listened to them!!!

In this mad mad world, i realised this simple thing "when u are down, people try to stand on ur fallen body to make themselves heard... when your are up and high, these same people will try to sit on your shoulder to make themselves seen!!!" hahahahahaha Aamzing palce is this world... and amazing are its people....

By the way, did i tell you who i am ... Oh!! sorry... My name is Sachin Tendulkar and my job is playing cricket for India....

QUOTAS...to be or not to be???

2008-04-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Finally decided to write something... a bit politico-socio-economic commentary ..... Oops!!! forgot to add educational there!!!

Quotas... one view - M/s Arjun Singh n his cohorts hell bent on dividing the nation...these guys can do anything for vote banks... so why not bankroll their vote banks by any dubious means.... make easy for them to achieve things...as a sms put it "A cricket boundary for OBC if it crosses the inner circle"!!!.... Hmmmm..... now for the counter view....These communities have been discriminated down the ages... so there is a urgent need for affirmative action... so quotas are a step in the right direction.... Without doubt, Caste system was the greatest hindrance to merit...

Then where thus all this leave us??? Is it impossible to have any view apart from this???

First of all, i think the blame lies with all of us... indirectly or directly, we have precipitated the situation... First by voting for, or by not going to vote against such politicians.....we can whine that the country is going to the dogs, but we wont waste half a day ensuring our names are correctly mentioned in the voters list.... secondly, Indians are generally apprehensive of outsiders and generally shun diversity, particularly intermingling or intermarriage among different castes... Thirdly our self contentedness ensures that we fail to think for some higher cause...

The argument in favour of Quota is strong... Over the ages, the lower strata has been discriminated for no other reason than birth... until recently, they were not allowed to enter Temples or even drink water from the same well...things may have improved in the last four decades...but the scars of 4 millenniums takes more than 4 decades to heal... Maybe the image of a Brahmin to a lower caste person is not that of a learned philosopher but rather that of a social tyrant... Centers of Learning are generally seen to have more percentage of students from the higher castes.... this is not by design but the image that is conveyed to the lower caste people is that of social discrimination... their fears may not have the support of social scientists, but are cannon fodder for politicians.... if quotas are successfully implemented, it may lead to the formation of a strong, sound and financially well off middle class among the lower caste... A strong middle class is generally the strongest bulwark against divisive politics... to correct a 4 millenniums long wrong, we do need to take drastic measures, however painful they may be...

Now, Let me state the anti quota view....CAT or JEE are no doubt the toughest exams... to be in the top 1% among 2-3 L people is no child's play...only the people of the highest merit will be there!!!! The ACTUAL cream of the population, thrown out by this massive churning process called exams... now assume a situation where in people are shown that there can be a short cut which will avoid this painful churning process... the response is as expected..people will make a dash for it!!! This will have the negative impact of discouraging the truly meritorious .. Also it may lead to some section of society enjoying some advantage over others... in the long term this can have disastrous effects , as in Chauvinistic and extremist faction coming into power as every community will be fighting every other communities in the war to gain freebies...today OBC may rule the roost...but who knows in the future, maybe the Brahmins or maybe Kshatiyas or the Baishyas start lobbying and forming caste based voting blocs??? ...and mind you, it need not be caste but region, religion, language, location, sect, sub sect and ad infinitum!!!!!!

I believe that the biggest problem with the whole issue is the super imposition of the macro view and the micro view... macro view is upliftment of lower caste, micro view being "i have to ensure my vote bank stay with me" ... macro view being encouraging people from lower caste coming forward, micro view being "My seat has gone to a person who has lower marks"...... unfortunately the exams only act as bottlenecks, as filters...as one approaches these bottle necks, one gets sucked in with such intensity that the whole priority is to get to the other side.... we spend hours arguing on 27% quotas, but we never protest against government why a country of 1 billion has only thousand seats at the IIMs and IITs... why not more of them??? Some people will point out that it is the filtering process that has worked wonders for these institutes... if that be the case, then why IIMs are no where close to Harvard or IITs no where close to MIT... in Harvard, the ratio is 1:10 whereas in IIMA, it is close to 1:1000!!!!!! People may again argue that there may be not much different in the average salary drawn in both places, but that itself is secondary.... Question is- If Harvard does need such stiff filtering to maintain its class,why cannot the Government of India open and maintain more such centers of excellence???

IITs, IIMs.... islands of excellence, centers of learning....and what have we done with them??? The media only portrays them as goldmine, aka El Dorados.... get there somehow, and get out loaded with cash!!! this is what WE like to read ... Do we read what people do to get there????people are ready to make their lives hell for a couple of years to get to these institutes!!! But we don't read at all about 18 years guys who have left their homes ... but we do read about 22 year old millionaires!!! the media has made them look like the lamps of Aladdin... when u show such images, obviously there will be some people who will like some short cuts... All humans are genetically programmed to look for ways to achieve maximum output with minimum input!!! so the support for reservation reservations can fetch them maximum media mileage, rather than improving quality of primary education....

But is reservation always bad ??? i have personally availed it and I don't think it is that bad... i studied in a college where there was reservation for my states... This artificial way of ensuring people of different parts of the country come together has helped me immensely in understanding diversity and pluralism...Quota cannot be that bad... interestingly, we don't make any hue or cry if we get benefits from quotas... suppose US today sets a quota for Indians for issuing H1B Visa, will we complain??? do students of some particular state complain when majority of Engineering seats in the state are not open to students from other states....Do states complain when 50% of seats in NITs are booked for them??? what I want to state is that if we have to oppose quotas, it has to be universal and not on case to case basis...

I remember the time when fees for IIMs were slashed to Rs 50,000/-... it could have actually led to down grading of the facilities in IIMs, as can the admission of student of students who have less than 85 percentile... but there was very little hue and cry, not much PIL nor any politicians grabbing lime light!!! WHY???? Because equality n merit comes after self interest... as for myself, i am sure that if US gives me visa because i am an Indian, i will gleefully take it...who cares if that guy from Ethiopia needed the visa more than me!!! My macro view may convince me to look into the bigger picture.... My micro view of this world will tell me "Get your seat man...there will be someone who will sacrifice'!!!

Ulysses.....

2008-03-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

The tale of the adventures of Ulysses begins in Circa 2001...that was the time when great changes were taking place in the world....changes that would be having far reaching effects on human civilisation- like IIT-JEE being split up into two rounds of the impending advent of AIEEE....with the dark clouds of uncertainty looming, our hero dared to defy all odds and furiously underwent immense hardships like memorising that “differentiation of exponential function by x gives the same results”, finally emerged victorious...this war was no less that the Trojan war...he felt smug when thinking wat fools the Trojans were.... “You spend ten years of you life in one small city fighting for a gal who was married to someone else and who was now living with someone else and ......no doubt they got fooled by that wooden horse”....Naaaaah!!!! He was much more smarter....what more, he even knew calculus!!!!....as he set of on the train that would lead him to his , he looked at the sky.... “Set sail...ahoy!!!”...he set ahead, to join the victorious armies which were coming forth from all parts of the countries....
He made his way to the barren and desolate lands of Trichy..... that place had been paradise when he saw on the crystal glass of a computer monitor.....the colours were so vivid then....but this was hell...the whole palace was haunted by horrible and detestable creatures called seniors who would always torture Ulysses in the most horrible manner by not allowing him to wear branded jeans....the shackles were too stiff....the only rosy part of the story is that the girl he found ok-ok on the first day has suddenly metamorphosed into the most lovely maiden on this world....she was the Helen...she had to be Helen....the gal who could launch a thousand bicycles....(P.S. she will be subsequently refereed as Helen.1.1...her beta version ,(ie on the first day) has been erased from the collective memory)...Old Shakespeare said is a rose is a rose whatever its name be...wrong!!!!! a red rose is different from a yellow rose!!! Ullyses sent her 10 red roses on rose day, only to get back ONE yellow rose!!!!!the club people who organised for the roses were shrewd merchants....
By and by Ulysses fell into groove...he and his comrades had fulfilled their assigned tasks....the Gods who resided in the final year hostel had approved their and baring the instance when ulysees was handed 13 tight slaps for his minor deviation of showing his respect to a final year girl with a whistle, life went on peacefully...
Finally the day came....they were welcomed into the fold of the high and the mighty.....by having the food at the freshi party, that ambrosia, they were transformed from mere first years juniors to.....hmmmm well, let’s say to first years....
How time passes.....ullyses had grown up....he passed the island of first year and reached second year....but it was not a simple task, only to be accomplished by fighting a major war with Controller-of-exam as well as several skirmishes like cycle test....by then he had already formulated his first law of human contact, based on his interaction with the not-so –beautiful-girl-on first day-but who –now-looks gorgeous, on which his whole treasure trove of wisdom rests “never take a girl out for dinner if there are 19 other guys ready to do the same....u will lose ur money for nothing”...
However the-beautiful-girl-who-looked-ok-on first day & the girl-who-looked- not-so –beautiful-on first day-but who –now-looks gorgeous....had decided to sail away on a different boat...ullysees was tempted to chases them had he not found his 6th Helen (....(P.S. she will be subsequently refereed as Helen.6.1.b, to avoid all confusion with Helen.6.1.a whom ullysees had met when he had gone to city and whose-ice-cream-he-had paid only to find that her phone no was actually her dads no)...she looked as if she had dropped from heaven...she was one year junior to him and .....and those parasitic first years were all over her....how dare they....this first years din not know how to behave.... they even dared to wear branded jeans when they would secretely sneak outside...how disgusting!!! Ever ready to maintain the the order of the land, Ullysees enforced strict discipline...alas! when has the world appreciated someone who wanted to do something good.........Helen.6.1.b resisted all his noble intentions like taking her out to dinner and finally tied a rakhi on his wrist when he sent her 10 red roses on rose day....but he was happy with the progress he was making in professional life ...”In 12th class we were only bothered about the chemical formula of alcohol without any emphasis on price”
By and by half the voyage was done...by now Ulysses had learnt the art of fighting the controller of examination....it was a worthy opponent....it gave him lots of bruises on the grade sheet but our protagonist trudged on....panting, he reached the island of third year...
There, in the “Grass”land of Ruby hostel, he found his calling.... he had heard legends talk about those fields but he was now there....in the subsequent months, there immense struggle between the army of Ulysses and the bovine forces lead by the treacherous jersey cow... the night were spent in abandonment on the terraces of Ruby which were like the hanging garden of Babylon....by then he was already a lord of the smoke rings....lost in his world, he was unable to decipher what Helen .8 had not like in him when he had asked her to come for a ice cream and told her that he did not have any change...he only sighed and “the world is going to the dogs”...now and then he would have some remote flashes from the past....and for a moment he would feel guilty of whatever he was doing....but he would convince himself that his life was getting topsy-turvy coz of second law of thermodynamics “Disorderliness of universe will always increase” and convince himself that he was not a absolute duffer coz “according to third law of thermodynamics, it is impossible to reach absolute Zero in a finite number of steps”...
While he let himself drift, doomsday was fast approaching....the enemy was much more alert, much more devious and much more agile than old Controller-of-exams......its name was placements..... Ulysses heart went cold when he first heard about it.....he had lost his weapons...whatever he had with him was rusted....at this critical juncture, he decided to make peace with R.K.Aggarwalls books of aptitude and Yeshwant Kanetkars book on learning C...it was a strategic alliance and the ill will between the allies was visible...Cornered, our hero was somehow able to muster his courage of early years...it was greatly aided by the fact that he saw Helen.11, Helen.12 & Helen.13 being more friendly for men having more GPA...it was fortunate that he had given them only 5 roses...
Now the tale takes an unexpected turn...Ulysses got a job in his first attempt....he could not believe his fortune... he has won the greatest battle of all!!!!! He has finally conquered..but alas many of his closest comrades could not join him....but many joined him!!! Now was the time for celebration, for revelry.... Life was never more beautiful............
However, by now Ulysses was a old man....he had seen his son, his grandsons and his great-grandsons......but he still had life in him.....And then he saw her.......she was the Helen!!!! All the previous Helen versions looked Demo models in front of her....But....he knew it was too late.....Ulysses was never supposed to have the gal in the original story....The original Helen had gone away with Paris ....yet he still got the roses for her, only difference being that he smiled when he got nothing back in return.....
By then, the ship had crossed the final landmark of Eight Semester.....their destination was clear....they were sailing too fast...suddenly Ulysses turned back and looked into the eyes of his closest comrades.....everyone, like him, had a tear drop in his eyes.... “Funny, when we all came, we were crying...and when we all are finally close to our destination, we are again crying....during this voyage, i have done things which maybe i should not have done, said thing which i should not have said....Was this voyage worth all this?”
Then he got the answer “It was never the destination, never.....it was the voyage that mattered...The destination was just the reason for the voyage, not the purpose.......Happiness, sadness, friendship...you found everything...whatever you become , wherever u got, you will be never able to forget this journey.... The voyage was a sentence whereas the destination was the full stop....you don’t write a sentence to justify a full stop na.”
He was woken out of his reverie when his ship touched land....everyone leapt out.....it was a new land...it was the beginning of a new adventure!!!! Everything looked so beautiful....Ulysses looked back at the old battered ship and realised that though he may wish it, he can never sail it again....it has done its job.....Now it was for Ulysses to do his job....and he has decided what he was going to do.... grow roses to earn his living.... he has seen the demand for it and has realised that he could make a killing out of it..... He knew he was an intelligent man...after all, after so many years, he could still remember Calculus.....

Catch 22.....

2008-03-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

It has been some months since i read that amazing book, Catch 22!!!! jus thought i would share my feelings with all....
I had been told that it was a great book..but somehow or other i had been putting it off...Yossarins story is the story of us....individuals caught in the cross fire of history and who steadfastly refuse to sacrifice their "Lower cause" (ie sanity, petty selfishness etc etc) for the sake of the "Greater" cause!!!!
It has humour as it has pain....it has sense as it has "non sense"..the beauty is that everyting is so seamlessly weaved together that ones loses track where he is standing at the particular monment...u laugh out aloud when you read aabout someone being killed....u ll feel like crying when a dog is being beaten!!!! the book does not philosophises....it merely asks questions, that too very subtely....
It makes a mockery of the concept of war, with all its noble ideals!!!! as our hero puts it beautifully - it does not make a difference to a guy who is dead as to whoever wins the war....I felt Yossarin is the common man....there can be nothing noble, nothing honourable in death!!! it is plain and simple death....anyone will lose all feeling of chivalary if he had to hold the strewn bowels of his comrade, watching him die without you being able to do anything....
I could go about talkin about the book but i request everyone to read it....many people wont like it.... its overtly lewd and at times amazingly crass!!! but in Yossarin's story, everyone will identigy with....it is the story of a single individual fighting to maintain his common sense against a world that is hell bent on proving him wrong!!!!

This was where it began.....

2008-03-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

long long time ago, in a place far far away....................someone wrote the first blog!!!!
Blog...hmmmm never thought i ll get into it...but i m now trying....my first post...there is a lot to be written about...there is a lot to be discovered....infact there is a whole new world to be discovered out there!!!!!
since the time someone drew on caves with charcoal....since the time someone took the first quill and ink pot....even now when somewrites with a gravity-defying ballpen-which-can-be-even-used-in-outer-space-but-of-which-i-see-no-other-use-to-justify-its-price, people have been trying to reach me...ME, yes i said me......for that, everyone of us as an individual....through my blog, i will try to reach to each and every individual......how to be born or how to die is not in our hands....what is in our hand is how would we be remembered......