When People Go Bonkers....

Life is a funny thing. There are those who sit on one side of the prism and say, life's colourful and some sit on another side and say, life's got too much variety and so on. So, what happens when all these perspectives culminate? Well, I don't know...quite frankly, I think, either people go crazy, or we see a whole new set of species who are more sensible and intelligent.

We in Hyderabad, have been grappling with a new wave of disease called political fever. And in this madness, a code has been set to reach each and every one of us through enormous publicity. Look around, and you will find trillions of small party flags, thousands of vehicles claiming to support some or the other party and hundreds of cars labeled as " MLA/MLC" and yada...yada. I must add that, some are leaving no stone unturned to make their presence felt, so much so that the basic ideology of electing a leader is questionable. These days, I have been coming across hundreds of hoardings of countless youth who have put there "100 watt glowing and smiling" photo along with their friends, claiming to be supporting some "God Knows Who" political leader. I am sure I will bear witness a lot more action in the coming days, and have every intention of writing something about it. Here's one such poster I have come across...have a look.


For those of you who cannot understand Telugu, here's the translation of the content in the poster...

"World is beautiful.
And without eyes it is meaningless.

....Pic...

On the Occasion of Jagan's Birthday, please donate your eyes.

Jagan Charitable Trust"

By the way, Jagan is the son of the current Chief Minister of A.P, Mr.Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy. Correct me if I am wrong Mr.Jagan, I went bonkers, when you (or atleast people supporting you) appealed to the public to donate their eyes on the "occasion of your birthday". You couldn't ask for a better birthday gift?!...:D...What next? You want people's blood, kidneys, liver, heart for several of your family member's birthdays?! It's a very noble intention to run a charitable trust, but it would be even great if you were more sensitive to people. Maybe next time, you can try to appeal to a broad set of audience sans your name on it, atleast not in the body of the poster...let people judge you for what you are. I have already seen some communities on orkut, which have termed you as the equivalent of "Rahul Gandhi" in A.P...and I wish you good luck for that!

I think, this is only the beginning of what promises to be a great election in the state this time. Already three lions are showing their prowess across the state, but we will have to wait a watch who stands up to be the fourth of the lions. It's funny, because, an election which is soon assuming a strong flavour of caste, political affliations and bias cannot be fair! Unless we, the people, stand up for what we truly believe in and try to make a difference. I think God has a plan for us this time, He's playing this mind game to see how far can people go to make things happen...and as we go on constructing our Tower of Babel, He's watching us...waiting for the moment when we forget what we are and who we are....and then...He will strike upon thee with fury and great vengence.

P.S: I am not a supporter of any political party...am just a ghost around...am just a common man!...:D (I know, I contradict myself!..)

The Persistance of Perseverance

One of my favourite movies, V for Vendetta, has a beautiful monologue about a man trying to kindle a sense of hope and optimism in the imagination of his fellow brothers and sisters. And it goes something like this...(An excerpt from the movie, V for Vendetta)

" V: Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot. "

The above passage has a great sense of pragmatism associated with it. And if you read closely, you will see that the speaker has appealed to what we believe in and what we subsequently end up doing. Take any great speech for that matter, and you will find the aroma of hope and at the end of it, a sense of relentless will to do something. Al Pacino's speech in "Any Given Sunday", is another example of words having an impeccable impact, so much so that, I can't sleep without listening to that clip atleast once! Over the past few years, I have come across video and audio clips of some influential speeches, out of which, Steve Jobs speech at Stanford's commencement, James Nachtwey's speech while accepting TED prize, and Barack Obama's Victory speech stand out. I would like to point out a bit about Obama here, since he's the man who seems to have captured the imagination of millions of people across the world.

A lot many things have been said and written about Obama, but nothing compares to the feeling which you undergo when you hear him talk. He doesn't say great things, but I have always wondered why some speeches become the talk of town and sometimes of the country, world as well. And after having listened to his Victory Speech in Chicago and another speech in 2004 in Illinois when he was campaigning for John Kerry, have cleared all doubts in my mind about the power of words. I have realised that no matter what, a simple phrase will reach people's heart if you utter with utmost sincerity and belief. No wonder, his political meetings bring such huge cheer and crowds from all walks of life. Probably, the next thing I am gonna do is to listen to all his debates and speeches to inject a dose of hope and optimism into my otherwise banal life.

They say, the simple and most beautiful things in life are free. Like a smile, tears, love, anger, fear, joy...ideas, perspective. And if we have to fight for them or even struggle to be able to catch a glimpse of them in our life, then be sure that there is something wrong with your life. It's not what your mirror shows you, but it's that brief moment of doubt in your mind, which makes you stand (or not stand) infront of a mirror for a longer time...that is a sign that things aren't what they have to be. People write tons of random stuff (including this post!..:P) to address how to resolve the crisis under such circumstances, I say, bullocks! How does one know what's with your life? How does a doctor know what's wrong with your head? There might be a cure for a lot of things, but is there a cure for hopelessness, the void in your life, the isolation...? Things like this can stay for a long time, consuming you from within, but life works in a magical way. All you need is a perspective called...Belief! God knows what sort of endorphin is released in our brain, but it's true! Things seem brighter and more chirpy when there is belief in our mind and heart. And what can be more beautiful, than seeing this sense of belief cure the dogma, that we cannot stand on our feet unless we have a helping hand!

At the end of the day, I wonder, how much of a changed person I am. Few years ago, when someone asked me, what do I want to be? I said, I wanted to be a respected person in the society. I didn't have an iota of knowledge what meant or how can I achieve it. And now when people ask me (after having seen how out of place I am in my current profession) what do I really wanna be and do? I say, I want to be a writer. And they laugh...See, this is what I call "The Persistence of an uncurable dogma". I now see a clear path ahead and as far as I can see, there's no one around. And I just walk alone...with a hope that, others will smile and rejoice when I reach my goal one day. Right now, I am in the middle of nowhere! Probably I would need a lot more Steves, Obamas, David Mitchells, Al Pacinos, Pete McCarthys, friends, strangers, movies, books, videos, blogs, ideas, thoughts, perspective, belief...to believe that,...."Yes, I can."

To put an end to this endless stream of consciousness, here's a modification of another quote from "V for Vendetta"...
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, my friend, and ideas are bulletproof."

Amen,
Hemanth

Go Fly Kites...

Amazing as it may seem, but there's no wonder that for once the leading political parties in India have reached a consensus. At last! And riding on the pulse of the populace, both Congress and BJP have taken a united stance on terrorism. This is where the brilliance of both the parties lies in. Both of them have had their share of ups and downs in the recent past, be it some high profile BJP members involved in Malegoan blasts, mutual slandering and mixed results in the recent state elections and yes, of course the major embarrasment which the Congress Government had to face in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai. At this juncture, this united stance assumes significance.

For once, they seem to have put their political differences behind and get down to some action. BJP is in a fix, because it doesn't have a face to portray as a dynamic and charismatic leader for the next elections. (Accept it...Advani is too old!). Same's the case with Congress, unless of course, due to an extra-ordinary turn of events, Rahul Gandhi is touted to be the next PM! I wouldn't be surprised anyway. I have always wondered, why from a country of 1 billion plus we haven't been able to select 550 (or somewhere around that) leaders who can lead! All we see is some bunch of folks fighting with each other because the other had interefered in one's area of influence. I bet people would end up laughing on the floor, if there was a positive statement from the opposition about anything which the ruling party does. (Which is what I am doing now...after having read that both the parties have reached a consensus!!!).

Now that there's a consensus, the obvious question is, what's the way ahead? Will we see another war? Or a spate of economic sanctions? or just pure dallying till the next government comes to power so that the entire blame could be levied upon that government for all that has happened during these months of dallying! Sooner or later, each one of us will end up looking in the mirror and wonder, who's this person standing in front of me! We don't look the same, the glow ain't around, there are zillion different things in each others thoughts...all trying to find answer to a simple question. What am I doing?

And if you still can't find an answer to that question...as my boss would say...."Go Fly Kites".

Because....Life Goes On....

Absurdity of Reasoning

Yesterday, I saw this post on Rediff.com written by a professor from IIM-Bangalore who was fuming over the terrorist attack in Mumbai. Looks like the day of tolerance are a thing of past and we have now come out of a shell to address the situation head on. 452 comments in little under 2 days is a force to reckon with to understand the magnitude of anger and frustration we have against our neighbours. Oh...wait, this time the guns are set right at the human rights activists and liberals of the country as well.

Elsewhere in the walls of US and Indian political establishments, strategies are being made to analyse the posibility of a war! So much so that, Rice and McCain have been threatening Pakistan that India will attack if an appropriate isn't taken against the terrorists. Talk about India's sovereignty...there it goes for a toss. A war ignited by speculation, and suspicion that some terrible and dangerous activities are going on across the border on either sides. Funny thing is, I don't even know why we should go to a war in the first place.

If the intention is to take revenge for the lives lost, then an eye for an eye wouldn't make any sense. If it's just to vent out the anger, frustration or to pass on a message to Indian people that Government is indeed not so handicapped, then maybe this is not the right time! Economy has been horrible over the past year, rising oil and food prices have taken its toll. On top of that the stock market collapse and the gradual erosion of foreign investments and cash reserves. It's absurd to even think of going to a war unless we want to test the strength of our defence forces! The missiles aren't gonna rust if we rest them for a little more time!...Will they?!

And for God's sake, stop the notion of going to a war! Because tomorrow nothing will make any sense...nothing. Just the illusion of having won over the neighbour....

What the terrorists need to do?

On 26th November, 2008 a terrible incident in Mumbai shook the entire nation. The battle between the NSG commandos raged for 3 days during which around 170 people lost their lives and several others were injured. And immediately after this chaos hit a pinnacle in political circle. Someone had to be made a scapegoat and media had to put blame on a handful of people. First among the bigwigs to go under the hammer was Shivraj Patel, the then Home Minister of India; R R Patil, deputy CM of Maharashtra and Vilasrao Deshmukh, CM of Maharashtra. This was not all..

The major impact, however, this time has been from the citizens. Countless protests led by some concerned citizens of Mumbai and several other places took place across the country. And as usual, media hasn't missed a chance to highlight the growing anger among the populace. I was going through some articles on various websites and newspapers which have highlighted the statements given by Sanjay Dutt, Shahrukh Khan and other celebrities about the insecurity they as citizens have been facing. What's most interesting this time is the outburst of India Inc. In a recent meeting between the Corporates and Police authorities in Bangalore, Corporate houses have demanded AK-47s be given to the security guards who guard the zillion offices around-a request which has been categorically denied by the authorities. All these incidents in a way form a perfect RGV film's plot. No wonder, he left no stone unturned to be on ground zero, 'apparently' inspired from the events and decided (or was it announced) that he would soon make a film based on these events.

Back in the headquarters, wherever these terrorists might be from I sense some really tense faces! There could be a notion that their plan backfired. The reason, they chose the wrong targets. Of course, they killed lot of people, brought the nation to its feet, but I wonder whether they can withstand the backlash and the international attention which this incident has acquired. As an Indian, I have a request for the thousands being trained for future Jihad missions.

For whatever your mission maybe, please choose India as your destination! We offer the best hospitality, best tourism, best health care, best transport, ample resources who can help you out with almost anything, right from smuggling goods to getting you an entry to a 5 star hotel. Keeping in view of all your low-cost model of execution, India should and is perhaps your most-preferred onsite location. But please fire your chief strategist! He (or she) may have been of great help in the past killing people in massive numbers, but this time he has got it all wrong. All Wrong!

We in India, still haven't forgotten the rich and poor divide. The poor always struggle for their rights and justice and not many pay attention to them! Whereas the rich, have the power which would make a nation like yours envy! This time, you chose the wrong targets, places frequented by rich and famous...no wonder there has been so much of backlash. Something which has forced the government take a strong stance for the first time in years! The next time you choose a location to plant a bomb, the usual and tested places are the best...nobody would give a damn in a day or two! If your plan is to create chaos in India, then I suppose, killing people is perhaps the worst technique. You see, everytime a bomb goes off in any location across the country, there's massive publicity, media attention, leaders asking people to show our unity...and indeed all this is true!

We, over the past 60 years have been seeing you through a prism. So, no one has a clue what your true colour and intentions are. Instead, try for once to stay calm and divert your attention to some other activity; could be as simple as searching for water and oil deposits right under your soil! That would ensure that RAW (if there is one!) is on tenterhooks 365x24 hours! Need I say more?!?!...Please nuke us...and we shall reply in a way (or atleast try to) that you will never ever forget.

When NEWS is not from N.E.W.S....

"Earth has only 4 more years left!" "Khali shows his muscles and 100people faint!" " yet another twist in the "slapgate" scandal" Breaking News:-"Cheerleaders are worse than Bar Dancers" "Thousands line up in streets to see the XYZ of Bollywood…"….Blah…blah…blah…blah…blah.

No, am not trying to promote the self-proclaimed audacity of "anti-blah-blah channel"; but news like this is a common sight. Almost 24 hours a day some or the other channel in around 200 channels that we have in India indulge in the utter stupendous nonsensical stupidity!If you are wondering what exactly I am referring to, then please switch on to a leading Hindi news channel which has the "distinction"of being the best for the past several years. (I have serious doubts on how they proclaim themselves as the best, although I would save that discussion for another day.) The latest fad, or should I call"Breaking News" is that the Earth will come to an end on 21stDecember, 2012. I have no problem when the world is coming to an end,but the oddity in this news is the way things are generated and thesheer impulsiveness of the host in coming to almost over the topbizarre conclusions. Coming back to this report, according to theanalysis of the drawings/paintings found in North America by the erstwhile Mayans claims that the Earth will come to an end in another 4 years.(the first loophole in this happened to be the way, the Mexican pyramids were located while telecasting them in this channel, I could never in my dreams think that Mayans were somewhere close to Hudsonriver!!! Maybe they did...Have to google it sometime..:) ) The then Mayan astrologists had predicted that the age of the present sun is about 5000 odd years and that it will come to an end in 2012 which will then give rise to a new civilization. Sounds like the story of "Stargate", like movies to me….:) . Another twist in the story is that, this is the 5th Sun that we have in our solar system.

To prove this already bizarre finding, the channel brings in a current age astronomer (or was he an Astrologer!??) . I think, he must have been in a fix to keep his version in tandem with the channels' content. And he came up with evenbizarre version of the "Judgment Day". According to him, our solar system will pretty close to the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and since there is a black hole in the centre, everything is bound to be sucked in. WTF!!!!...This surely is a reason for us to be worried about….but will sense prevail on humanity (read as people who religiously follow the content of this channel) remains to be seen. I mean, someone give this chap and the channel a "NOBELest Prize" for making the discovery of a lifetime. WTF was NASA or ESA doing if we are going to have such a calamity sometime soon. Or is it possiblethat the superpowers have kept mum on this issue to avoid any possible chaos??

Possibly a good example of sensationalism and Yellow Journalism, the channel can be credited with some of the most bizarre things explainedwith all the possible intricacies on primetime. Hold on now, the so called "anti- blah-blah" channel is also not far behind. A partner in crime, it is a haven for page-3 kinda stories (and again debating that likes of page-3 is bringing immorality and destroying the Indian"sanskriti"..) and creating icons out of nothing. Take the WWE wrestler for example, almost an hour or two is dedicated for himeveryday, and the channels just seem to be following him day and night! Shouldn't be a problem, when you can withstand the likes of Sawants, Khans hogging the entire limelight on TV, but is it that important to explain what he eats, wears, thinks, does…..crap!Somebody drive sense to people who think this is worthy enough, but I am nobody to blame or pass a judgment. It's again a moral debate todebate what's good and what's not? But my humble request is to thinkbefore putting the content on TV, there might be zillion better thingsthat could be shown on TV. The same goes on for zillion Regional Channels....it's better to stop transmission of the channel than to rather fill it with crappiest of things...but again am nobody to pass on a judgement. Which is why I switch on to a movie channel everytime such things are highlighted as "BREAKING NEWS"....:-P

I just saw it couple of feet away!!....

Remember, some years ago, there were only few spots which were "the thing" to do something...for example, in Hyderabad, Koti and Abids was for shopping and the situation was something like people from all over the city would come over to these areas to shop around....whereas in the case of Bangalore, it would be perhaps Brigade Road....But all this is a thing of past. Now, there are just too many options I suppose, which in a way I must say has done a lot of good for the citizens who now will have to travel less....I just hope, the old doesn't ever lose the charm for which it was once famous for...and I hope People always remember such places for what they stood for once upon a time....

Brand Visibility is perhaps the biggest matter of concern for today's market when there's just too many things to choose from. So, that's more or less would be the reason why you see billboards of the same company every 2 miles...leave advertising; this thing is happening for offering services as well...and undoubtedly the telephone service providers are numero uno in this issue...and coming close in that matter would be banks and ATMs perhaps... But over the past couple of years, I have seen something else coming up too...

ICICI bank once had a goal; to establish its branch every 2 kms across India, so that it can provide better services to the people...and SBI did another nice thing....an amazing network of ATMs...more or less one every 200 metres in some places...am sure it has made money transaction easier for most of us.... but giving it close competition is another unlikely brand....I would say it's "Cafe's Coffee Day" outlets...they are just everywhere....trust me in a city like Bangalore, it easily outnumbers any other brand in its segment and otherwise...it's more or less like a deja vu, each time you spot one, it feels as if you saw something just couple of feet away...maybe that's true in some cases!

What I wonder is, how we see this mushrooming of brands as? If it's a case of people loving coffee and the ambiance, may be...if it is a case of giving people a place to chill out..maybe...but my point is, do we need so many of the same brand that too....sometimes just few steps away! I still hope that they do good business in each of their outlets otherwise there's no point...as of now, it looks like that the panipuri outlets of our yesteryears have taken a new form...(hehe..No offence intended!)....wouldn't it be nice if SBI and Cafe' Coffee Day come to an agreement and instead of having one outlet separately, maybe there could be an ATM in every coffee day...this would save lots of space!!!

Protecting the Unknown....

Look around and you will find lots of organisations trying to protect something....well, protecting the elements like Water, Earth and other things makes a lot of sense since they impact the society in one way or the other. But then there are organisations which seem to protect things like Culture, Language, Regions from outsiders...and so on. I wonder what exactly they want to do here. Of course expressing concern and protests are one way of doing it...but we nowadays take the road of violence and stringent action to make our point.

If 20th century was responsible for liberalisation from colonialism and the consecutive drawing of boundaries across the world; the present era demands for a society without any boundaries. I agree that it's our duty to preserve our culture and language but you just cannot ignore the influences that we have in our day to day lives. Take the case of language itself....we go as far as banning schools from teaching with English as the primary medium with the pretext that it might obliterate the respective regional mother tongue. But on the other hand we want everyone to rise up to the current demand of speaking a global language?!!! Is this possible....how can you have both??!! Isn't there a serious mismatch of what we are doing and what we are supposed to do??!!....Another example of such protection is about the wealth and land from foreign settlers....Till 1947 we fought against Britishers and then 60 years later too...we are fighting...but this time it's among ourselves!

Why do we fight among ourselves?? Economic differences are one major cause of this fighting; but what I find it more amusing is that why people blame others for their misery??!! It's not like they were eating in the same plate!!!....In most of the cases the notion that the land belongs to the original inhabitants of the land and so its resources there after should also belong to the native people. What we forget here is the effort that these supposed outsiders among our own people put in to develop those resources...We see this in places like Andhra Pradesh where the demand for a separate Telengana is gaining support day by day. I wonder had Hyderabad been in some other region, would this movement have been this strong??!!....Even in Karnataka we have these organisations which fight for the protection of Kannada and also the notion that all the riches of Bengaluru are being swooped away by the outsiders in the city is just too strong!!....

With the globalisation phenomenon taking centre stage in the present age, there's obviously going to be movement of jobs, money to different regions in the world. And in India it happened to be Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai while Mumbai and Delhi were among the list long before big businesses started in the southern cities. It's the innate nature of humans to feed upon resources where they are available in plenty....this is exactly the reason why there's movement of people within the nation...so, instead of resisting such movement, and much worse seeking some kind of security for the locals under these circumstances through reservations and quotas; we have to adapt for what the situation demands...as Thomas Friedman in his book "The World is Flat" says, if someone wants to keep his job, gone are the days when one can promise lifelong employment....it's the time when you have to show others that you are employable.

Boundaries are diminishing, we are going to live in a place called Earth where each nation is connected to one another by zillions of optical fibres...What we need to understand is that, however foreign we might dress, sound, talk, dress...but within we are still what we are. And what exactly is that....maybe each one of us understand what we are made of....!

How Flat is our world?

If you have read the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, you would realise what exactly is my question. This is not a review of the book but something which struck me while I was reading the book. On several occasions in the book, Thomas talks about the challenges in future for America and developed countries from countries like India and China. On the other hand, I wonder how many of us realise that we are capable of doing that one day in near future. Although things have changed to quite an extent, I would say, it should be attributed a lot to the focus of media on the booming economy which has turned our focus onto seeing this possibility.

Schooling is one important thing which has to lay the foundation for young generation to dream big. In an age when we are in the crossroads of deciding who should get what share of the pie; I am afraid we are again on the verge of losing a huge global opportunity. The percentage of people who are working towards this goal of attaining a whole new role and position at the world's stage is so minimum compared to the possible potential of the country! The yesteryear's generation of our country still keeps talking about our great freedom struggle and how this has brought a whole new identity for us....yes, that's true and that's really something to be proud of. But it is the generation of the 60's and 70's which really bothers me, because they are today's decision makers in every home and office and so many other places. Having born and brought up under a not so highly dynamic system of growth and opportunities; it is true that most of our parents had to undergo a lot of struggle to come out of their struggling phase of life. But what about us??....what about the generation of the 80's and 90's which has grown in the post liberalization era?? We haven't gone through the early years of struggle like our parents had and we don't understand what they had undergone....of course I cannot generalise this for everyone.

The problem is there is just too many choices and opportunities in the present age and the world which is changing itself so constantly that, it's difficult to point out which one we should adapt ourselves to. We are advised to take up something because it's a notion that it is good for a comfortable living. But is it really so in the present age? Friedman talks about how motivated were people during Space War in the 60's that it inspired a whole generation to take up Science and Engineering. And how that generation knew what it had to do 10 years from now.
Today, we don't have a space race, neither there's a nuclear race for our nation...we have already achieved both! The thing which we need to ponder upon is, what's next on the line? How long will we implement the present strategy of providing services for others? Do we really see ourselves as someone who can bring the next big change in people's lives? If so, in what way?....

We are going to reach the American standards in everything one day but what happens then? I am sure, when the disaster strikes this will be an immediate reaction too... Going by the present phenomenon and excerpts from the book also say that in this flat world America is stagnant and even receding at times and India and China are fast catching up! I wonder what's it going to be which will reverse the past 60 years phenomenon of G7's dominance?? Russia and G20 might be ready for the challenge, but the question is who will pose that challenge and who will set the parameters for others?? And who is going to be who will realise the existence of such a challange??...It all boils down to, how flat do we think our world is? And what are we going to do about it??....

Equality in the present age....

One reason I believe why equality in the present age has such an important place is that, we are entering into an age of debate how we are looked upon by others. We demand for equality in everything; some wishes are granted and some aren't. And when things don't happen our way, we crib that there's no one who will listen to you. I think there should be equality in things like justice for all and maybe in access to education and employment (Here again...i am just saying "Access" as in I am strictly against reservation or partiality of any kind towards people of any caste/creed/race/region/colour)....

While in other cases the relevance of equality is fast diminishing. Take the case of the present age man himself. I believe that no two men should be equal...they shouldn't treat themselves as equals nor should others look at them as equals. For when you are equal, there's no difference between the two and their existence has no meaning...they are just clones! Differences should exist in our lives, otherwise there's nothing left to trade between two individuals or among a group. What I mean is, there has to be a difference in the knowledge levels, so that the person with more can "share" it with person with less in that field. Again one important that we mustn't forget here is that, if someone isn't good in something doesn't mean that he's not good at everything else...as I said differences should and do exist among us. That's what keeps us alive. Had there been no differences, cultures would have been wiped out, languages would follow in the same category, and jobs too....we do things that we are more capable of doing than others in exchange for something else, like Money.

On a larger scale, what we need to realise is that we can never be like somebody else. We should never be like somebody else....but yes, we should set for ourselves some parameters which look unachievable and progress in that direction....like the saying goes,"Aim for the moon, you will atleast reach the stars!". Forget about equality in the era of globalisation; unless we do something better than others, we are doomed. So, instead of protecting somebody under the umbrella of reservations or waivers we have to find ways to find gold in sand!

Disruptive Technologies @ H.O.M.E

Disruptive Technologies....probably the better way of describing it as something which changes the way we live either in a good or a bad way. (In this case....technology is presumed to also mean an event/issue or maybe even a consequence.....)

During the evolution of mankind....first it was his power to think! This is what differentiated him from animals...and then there was his discovery of use of Fire...and invention of wheel....and other techniques in warfare starting with a bow and arrow, spear.....Later, there was construction...something unanticipated...for example, the Pyramids of Egypt and other monuments elsewhere across the world. For quite sometime, things went on like this...and then Man had already conquered the seas on his ships and new techniques in warfare...there were swords now!....One fine day, he made Gun Powder. That just changed the very art of warfare...the more the gun powder, the more the destruction! Then there was the Printing Press...this perhaps triggered the Industrial Revolution...then came Steam Engine and the rail roads and airways. Out of nowhere...following the two world wars....Colonialism was gone... and it led to a new world order which just changed the course of our lives in the past 60 years. Then there were Computers and Internet....and now, it's altogether a different story...which doesn't seem to have an end or a beginning....which we all are well aware of.....but what I am going to write about is not what's happening in the world around, but about how these changes around are influencing the disruptive technologies in our own homes and lives.....(It's just an objective point of view....I really can't generalise this issue for everyone...[:)]....)

1. After you are born, the first bottle of milk in your mouth triggers a whole new phenomenon which didn't exist before. It's just an indication of how life's gonna be in future...

2. First day at school amidst a whole new bunch of strangers...still can't forget the first day I had spent in each and every school I studied in....

3. After you realise what studies mean for you....the first report card!....that's one hell of a thing to watch out for...it's a brand on your head what you are "believed" to be made of....some schools go as far as making toppers wear "badges" which say that he/she is class 1st!!....that's so weird when i think about it 10 years later!!!....hehe....

4. This triggers another concept of "Success and Failure". Why does one need to fail to make someone else succeed??!!...I simply fail to understand this point....why does only one 1st rank need to be given??!!...What is the need to start a race to see who wins it?...I wonder, how would
things have been had they allowed the river to flow peacefully??!!

5. CHOICE....this probably is something which is quite ironic to its meaning. Probably the only act of human where he/she has very little right to do it for themselves....because there are plenty others to do it for you. And then you are told to follow it...because that's the best thing for you. It does coincide with your opinion sometimes...but still it's a decision where you would have wished you had more say in it....starting right after 10th!!!....Sometimes I wonder, in what corner of earth has "HEC" (History, Economics, Commerce) group in my own state of AP been thrown into??!!....No one talks about it....I guess some, don't even know it exists!....And then after 12th....it's the path for the next 3-4 years which has to be chosen!....Again here, there's more freedom on the one who has to face the reality's side....they get lucky too...for their wishes are granted and for others...it's again decided by others....you should be actually happy. People are reducing your burden of thinking!!!...

6. Society.....This probably has the most devastating effects than any other issue which might influence our lives. It's like an ocean where a tiny drop of water has no value or meaning unless the drops decides to go along with million others....the drop which refuses to go along with others...is either evaporated or left alone in a far far land during the journey with the other drops kicking it out of their path. It's both a boon and a curse...for when wind blows in your direction it becomes a boon and when it's against, it's a curse! It's the most astonishing thing which rides millions along the same path...be it in the craze for jobs....software (My god!!!...this one is just too much.....)....globalisation and what not to name a few....Call it the greatest lesson of Management....it's the best possible example of Chain Marketing or probably it applies to every other type of marketing where your decisions are based on recommendations and also sometimes...replicating what others do!....

7. Ideas....Imagination, Thoughts, thinking out of the box, crazy things which seem to be a misfit...might be termed as some of the synonyms of this disruption. It's quite a tricky thing too...for an Idea which goes well along with the "current" trend or the emerging trend in the society is well received...and if it isn't...then either it's a work of a genius or just a fool who's wasting time!....People who have great respect in Society and who can influence our decisions come under the category of Genius when something like this is told...and the others...well, they fall into the latter category. Well, I am not sure if Ideas can change the world....but the truth is, "Ideas can't be destroyed"....even if you keep your mind shut it thinks of million ways to come out of this condition....in the darkest of the alleys, it searches for the faintest possible light....such is the power of thinking....Maybe the only time we should stop thinking is when we are dead!!!....But look at the situation then....Society comes up with a whole new term for it...calling it as "Rebirth" and "life after death" and imagines what's the path going to be for us from then onwards....

They are all so, interconnected...with one triggering the other...and somewhere in the middle of all this...they get intermingled so badly that it's so difficult to determine which triggered what!...If you decide to come out of all this web at any stage...then good luck buddy...you are about to face "series of consequences" called L.I.F.E.....

Life is a Hologram...

How many times have most of us wanted to be so many things??!!!....I remember as a child I wanted to be a scientist, and then in school after developing a great interest for History, I wanted to be a Archaeologist...and then when finally I went to High school, Science seemed pretty interesting, so I wanted to be a Doctor....but finally it was decided that I should become an Engineer!....

After having graduated recently from College with an Engineering degree, I come to think about it...phew!...what a journey has it been from a scientist to an Engineer...but wait, the list hasn't ended. Owing to the multiple exposure of different topics and options...I guess I have a list which will never end. The moment you start thinking about the life ahead....you want to be something. The question is what exactly out of the given choices that you have?

It is not uncommon that your choice is influenced by the extent of money you can earn later, yet I don't disagree with the fact that some of us don't bother much about the money factor. They say, you need to look at the global scenario when you think of life ahead. That's probably what most of us end up doing...because lot of times your decision depends on what the person next to you is doing....this could be anybody...your friend, neighbour, relative, anyone else!!....it's like a continuous chain which links to almost each and everyone of us and thus moving forward. The ones who don't want to be a part of this chain....I am worried about the ongoing phenomenon that.....they are looked upon as someone who's irresponsible towards one's life..literally an outcast!.....You want proof of such phenomenon??!!....Just look at the sheer number of Engineers and Doctors we have in our country...phew! unbelievable...I wonder if each one of us wanted to be an Engineer or a doctor....or maybe we just ended up being so!

Life....Life is something like a Hologram...it just changes itself depending on the light...which is similar to ideas and multiple things that you learn each day....and also which angle you look at it!...what i mean to say is, before aiming for the top, never forget to look at your sides..you will get a fair idea of how much your are competing for!!!....But the question is, Are we ready to look at life as a hologram??!!!....Are we ready for the changes that might spring up??!!....Wants can't be suppressed for long...if they are, either you feel that it wasn't the appropriate thing to do, or you are just waiting for the right moment to do it sometime soon....

I wish, if all of us look at this phenomenon from different angles and maybe we can see different things happening which hitherto were thought to be an impossible thing to happen!....Routes to success can be plenty...I think they are....What we need to do is, not imbibe a notion that some routes are bad which will lead to a disaster....because all that matters is the journey and the end goal on the route you take......But what if there is a dead end on some route?!!....Well...well...Life has such endless possibilities...who knows there might be some surprise waiting for you in some corner!!!.....

Whispering through walls...

May 16th, 2007...probably it's one date which I am not gonna forget for quite a long time. The reason being, I unofficially graduated from college. Now, in college there are always two kinds of people, those who love it...and those who don't. And then there are others....who neither love or hate college...it's just another 4 years of their lives....no big deal. And I....I loved it...for everything that it has taught me...and for giving me all the time to think and do what i feel like doing....

Then when I finally landed in my home, things weren't all rosy to be honest. In another 2 weeks we had to shift to a new apartment, which means that I have to help in packing stuff....given the leisurely pace at which I would love to work, I am supposedly way behind the expectations!!!....hehehe...and what followed next is completely different story. And then finally we landed in a new apartment in one of the posh localities of Bangalore....

The very first thing which my dad told me after coming to a new house is...."We have lived the past two years in some sort of hiding; and now, with so many people around who all work for the same organisation...you are bound to be watched...so, be careful in what you do!"..Fair enough I suppose!....

In the first one week of my stay here...I used to look around and wonder...wow! there are so many buildings and apartments around....and plenty of people too. Quite a different scenario from our tiny house in another locality....anyway, another interesting thing about this new apartment is that....there's a huge park in front of it....and if i am not wrong, then you can see people jogging/walking right from 5 PM to night 11PM!!!....that's right....maybe even after 11 PM!!!....of course you get to see only children and families in the evenings and couples after dark...hehe....Looking at so many people doing this routine, I wonder if they are doing it for the health reasons or is it that they feel as if some kind of obligation to utilise an oppurtunity!...whatever maybe the case, it's nice to see so many people at one place!....

Another day, Mom told me that, someone was enquiring about us!...So, in a way, what dad had been telling me was infact true....everyday i stand near my window and stare at the 7 floor high block trying to figure out if i can spot someone in any of the floors....of course i am not always successful in doing so....But for some strange reason, I can feel plenty of people, watching us behind those closed windows and curtains. And I carry the burden of trying to justify that we are a pretty nice, social newcomers!....of course, I don't do anything....I just sit at home, watch movies and blog....pretty much the same what i used to do in college....just that, in this phase of life....I...I...

I wonder, if someone is watching me every 10 minutes,
I wonder, if someone is eager enough to get to know the newcomers,
I wonder, if I can hear yet another airplane go high above me in the next 5 minutes,
I wonder, if I will see the same people jogging in the park,
I wonder, if something interesting will happen on any given day,
I wonder, if someone will give me a call which might make my day
I wonder, If I will ever be prepared for the challenges ahead,
I wonder, I wonder, why does time fly by so soon? Why did I graduate so soon?
I wonder, if I have better things ahead,
I wonder, if it's gonna be as good as my past,
I wonder...why do I just keep wondering almost all the time!....

India and its Catch 22 issue

"There are two roads...if you take one, you are doomed. And if you take the other you are doomed too!" This is more or less a definition of the Catch 22 phenomenon. Some of us would have read the Joseph Heller's novel by the same name and I am pretty sure it's a good one too...but what has India got to do with the Catch-22 phenomenon??

If you had seen the news on 31st May, 2007...the Ministry for External Affairs "demanded" its Sri Lankan counter-part that it shouldn't approach either China or Pakistan to fight against the LTTE. What makes this extremely interesting also being a Catch-22 situation....after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE, India vowed that it will never forgive LTTE. But 16 years later, LTTE did accept that it was a big mistake and gave a formal apology...but even now India hasn't forgiven what LTTE had done. On the flip side, one of the main ally of the present UPA government, DMK is known to be inclined towards LTTE...more precisely for the rights of Tamils residing in Sri Lanka. And we have seen several times in the recent past, DMK and its allies voicing opinions regarding this issue.

What makes the entire issue a Catch-22 for India is that, it doesn't supply arms to Sri Lankan Army which is fighting against LTTE and trying to subdue the civil war; neither does it agree to be the mediator between the Lankan Government and LTTE during the recent peace talks....(can't believe it was Sweden which agreed to do so!!!....and Thank God, someone came forward!!!)....and now...now that Sri Lanka wants an external support to fight against LTTE....India says that it is the Big Power in the region, so Sri Lanka shouldn't go to other countries for help. What's even more surprising is that, India has always been a sovereign state and it's actually hard to believe that it's acting like a big brother to its neighbouring nation. Lets say even if it agrees to supply the arms given a condition that Lanka asks for help from India....I wonder if DMK would agree to it!!!....you just can't allow your country to fight against your own people residing in other countries!!...can you??

Which brings us to our second issue.....owing to its foreign policy which doesn't allow India to indulge in other country's matters....it just cannot sit silent to allow China or Pakistan to come anywhere near its shores....such is the level of trust we have with our neighbours!..[:(]

It would be interesting to see the developments in the near future on this issue and I am actually wondering if we would be able to get ourselves out of this issue without hurting anybody. But in the end I guess someone has to lose. Whether it's the "ego" of the UPA govt to not forgive the LTTE and thus playing a major role in the peace process....or will it be conceding the Sri Lankan government to go ahead with its plan of asking for help from either China or Pakistan to come so close to the Indian shores which might have some future implications.....well, we will have to wait and see....!!!

Deja Vu...

I have a question for you....Have you ever been through a Deja Vu??...That's a term used to describe something that you are so sure that has occured in your life and it's occuring again although it might not be so...in several cases it's more or less a small incident but rarely would you have heard of incidents of Deja Vu after watching a movie sometime back.....Now you might say, it's stupid and quite a baseless statement to say. How can anyone experience the same things after having seen a movie of that kind??...

I am not talking about the usual comedy/romance/heavy drama/blah...blah of cinema....but i just can't stop thinking about two movies that i saw earlier this year.....Italian movie "Noshtalgia" by Tarkovsky and Swedish movie "Cries and Whispers" by Ingar Bergman...while the former is full of silence of self and yearning for the beloved, the later is about sibling rivalry .....both these qualities spectacularly portrayed things in both these movies....In Noshtalgia you see a writer who's thinking about his past and his homeland almost all the time though he's in a distant country....and in the latter movie...you have two sisters who have developed huge mental walls between themselves for what may seem like a very trivial reason....

Lemme put things into perspective by saying that...I am that man who thinks about his past...maybe just too much...or maybe it's just too many times...I guess it's a combination of both which makes it seem so close like a Deja Vu....I wonder why I keep thinking so much about so many things...most of them might seem to be very silly which even my Mom tells me that I day-dream way too much and thus neglecting my day to day responsibilities...but then maybe I don't see a better thing to do than to think and trying to find answers for what you think. So, in a way it's both a boon and a curse to think a lot. On one hand it generates lots of ideas out of which maybe one day, one among them might change the course of your life....the curse is that, maybe it will lead you to a path where you believe that there are much better things to do in life than that. Right now, I am more inclined to the boon part of it....which brings me to my second Deja Vu....building mental walls for seemingly trivial reasons....

A question constantly posed by my mom is that, "Why are you so Lazy??!!...Don't you see the other kids of your age of the present generation??!!...they are so capable of doing anything..." Now I wonder, why is my laziness a question of my capabilities...now I don't claim that I can do anything....but since when did not doing something become...not capable of doing anything?? I think about this which takes time....and inturn it adds to my laziness...hehehe....quite an irony it is!!...Another notion is that, if there's plenty of food with a TV(of course with cable) and a Computer (with internet)....it just doesn't matter where I live...be it among tons of people around or on a maroon island!!...and I had a taste of that life for 2 days...something which I am not gonna forget....you see, again there I thought...What kind of life can you live when the person sitting next to you is forcefully avoiding to talk to you!!! and not willing to give up under any circumstances even though you are almost begging to talk....atleast if I am on a lonely island, i will be happy to live a life the way I want to live it...but with someone who's willing to set up a similar condition at home!!....that's scary...that's really scary....Yes, this is me Hemanth who confesses that silence and lonliness is a scary thing when you know that you are not really alone and have to restrict the way you think and someone is actually watching you, why in the world are you like that!!....

Finally after having gone through 2 days of struggle within...there was a sunrise and atleast for the time being I was less lazy and atleast for the time being the mental wall collapsed!!....hoping that this phase of life of mine gives me wisdom to think what I wanna think without "starying" away from my generation....but WTF, why should I be like someone else, when in the end all that is gonna matter "How should I be myslef??"...Think about it. Maybe you will come across an answer....[:)]

My Last Article...For EPC

I wonder, why I have been asked to write this one. And I will never be asked to write something like this again….4 long years…well they are going come to an end in less than a month!!!...Over the last few days my friends have been asking me, “Are you feeling psenti that you are leaving this place?” The answer is…No, not even a bit psenti about leaving this place. The reason why I say this is, there’s nothing that I can shed tears for, there are only smiles about everything imaginable, because every memorable moment is so crystal clear in my mind that I can just recall as if it has happened just few days ago!!! It’s for the sake of those zillion memories that I take back with me that I don’t cry. Maybe I am too overwhelmed to accept the fact that I will not be here anymore…

On Day1 we were told that attendance is not compulsory, there is no curfew after dinner like in several other colleges back home, you get to choose your own timetable; they said, you are mature enough to make your own decisions. Yeah…that is what this place is all about….we call it, “FREEDOM”. Some of us are of the opinion that too much of freedom will deviate us from the path of what we are supposed to do and what basically we are here for. Yes, they are quite right about that, but maybe I should mention this quote from the speech by Steve Jobs in Stanford University, “Life is too short. Don’t spend it living someone else’s. You gotta find what you love to do…so, don’t stop until that day, keep looking.” What we are about to do in the next 5 years might not be the same what we will end up doing in the next 20-30 years. And those seeds have to be sown right here, so later when you look back you will realize what great influence has these 4 years had on the rest of your life.

Everyday has been a pleasure to live here…so, the next time if some of you hear a comment someone saying “I can’t believe how those 4-5 years went”, you know why they say that!!! As someone who does very little apart from seeing things go past in a jiffy, watching movies or maybe even talking to someone, I wonder why didn’t that moment last longer. What I want to say, there’s nothing which is going to wait for you and as one of my senior had told me in my first year, “There’s no time for anything…you will have to make it from whatever you have.” One fine day, all that is going to matter is what we think and how far we can go to make those thoughts come true…make those dreams come true.

Before I forget, I really should mention some things which I would miss a lot!!!...Pappu’s Double Chai, Chimpu’s MNB, chai in Nutan under the moonlight just before sunrise, DC++ and all those people with awesome collection, people who smile at you for no reason, friends who are too excited to tell you “the” gossip in town, all those friends and seniors who have had a huge influence on me, heavy ghotting for each and every subject right from first year (Pun Intended!!!) and the biggest of all, Movies and Internet!!!

How I wish, these moments last longer, but maybe there’s more to come, that’s why everything has to have an end…atleast that’s what you can hope for. So, there go my last few words which I thought I could share, wish you all loads of success in life and for all those who still have time left here, think and do whatever you want to. This is BITS, this is LIFE.

A tribute to Boredom.....

I was reading this post on one of my friend's blog named "The 'Stolen' Tag" ...more or less a tribute to boredom!!! and at the end of it...I was tagged, because I had read the post till the very end...hehehe...so, here's my list of things!!!

1. Were you named after anyone?
I was about to be named "Heli"...incidentally the Comet "Halley" was around in that year..but the pujari was kind enough to suggest to look for some other name starting with "H".

2. Do you wish on stars?
They just remind me of a quote by Einstein, "How can you look at stars and not believe that there is no God?"

3. When did you last cry?
Not sure...but then crying doesn't necessarily mean that it should end with tears....sometimes those unseen drops have too powerful feelings attached to themselves

4. Do you like your handwriting?
Only I seem to like it...although all my teachers in school used to say that it looks as if a cockroach dipped in ink has crawled over the paper.

5. What is your favourite meat?
Chicken!!!

6. What is your most embarrassing CD on your shelf?
Any empty DVD/CD...b'coz that's not the purpose of its existence...it has to have some or the other movie recorded!!!...heheh

7. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you?
Oh yeah!!!...i would have wondered how can such people even exist??!!...nothing short of one of a kind.

8.Are you a daredevil?
hehehe....not really...although i tend to be devilish and mean at times.

9. How do you release anger?
Thinking...thinking...blogging at times...but i haven't found a better option to release my anger than watching a good movie..it's easily my favourite stress buster...favourite companion when i am alone.

10. Where is your second home?
Pilani :D.

11. Do you trust others easily?
Yes.

12. What was your favourite toy as a child?
a monkey doll which my brother had...I used to throw it all over the place till mom scolded me.

13. What class in school/college do you think is totally useless?
Math till class 10!!! I used to flunk it lot of times...but then my perception changed...and I am glad it did.

14. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Maybe not...but sometimes I guess I surprise myself!!

15. Have you ever been in a mosh pit?
No.

16. What do you look for in a guy/girl?
Ability to sustain a decent conversation.

17. Would you bungee jump?
No...I am afraid of heights. But the day I come over this phobia..I would just love to do all that...

18. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
No, laziness prevails.

19. What's your favourite ice cream?
Anything except strawberry flavour....but Chocolate rules!!

20. What are your favourite colours?
Black...black...black...

21. What are your least favourite things?
Being the odd man out in a crowd.

22. How many people do you have a crush on right now?
hehehe...taken a break this semester..Who said I stopped!!!... the number is obviously bound to increase...I am gonna graduate this summer...yuppie!!!

23. Who do you miss most right now?
Company of all those I have been with over the past 3 years.

24. What are you listening to right now?
Some movie themes...Shivaji and Prasanna...and operas by Mozart.

25. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
Black/red...would wanna die soon and try to be something else...i guess that's what we all do everytime...changing ourselves to prove our existence.

26. What is the weather like right now?
Horribly Hot!!!..I can't even sleep these days.

27. Last person you talked to on the phone?
Dad.

28. The "first" thing you notice about the opposite sex?
There is something called as "Likeable Index" in my brain...so, would see how likeable is she...of course in the first notice it's the physical apperance which counts!!!...(Muhahahaha...)

29. Do you like the person who sent you this?
Oh yes...tagged from one of my best friends.

30. How are you today?
As always- restless and Inquisitive....waiting to see if this day would be anything different from the previous one.

31. Favourite non alcoholic drink?
Chai...but these days...I prefer Coffee!!!

32. Favourite alcoholic drink?
Haven't tried much...I mean different Varieties..but then Vodka with a good amount of salt and lemon would be IT!!

33. Natural hair colour? Black

34. Eye colour? Brown

35. Wear contacts? No

36. Siblings? Yes

37. Favourite month? Feb.

38. Favourite food? Anything good...but then Chicken is always up in the charts.

39. Favourite day of the year?
None in particular...or maybe I have too many to figure out which one is more important.

40. Have you ever been too shy to ask someone out?
Oh Yes...everytime...too much of planning goes in..hehehe..but it's nice fun nevertheless

41. Scary movies or happy endings? Doesn't matter...as long as it is a good movie.

42. Summer or winter? Spring.

43. Holi or Diwali?
Both. Who cares, its holiday time.

44. Do you like your name?
Love it, although I wonder how it would have been had I been named "heli"...hehehe...

45. What book/magazine are you reading?
The City of Joy- Domique Lapierre...but dropped it for the time being...gonna read "The Animal Farm"-George Orwell... for the second time..i just lev it!!

46. What's on your mouse pad? Don't have one.

47. What did you watch on TV last night?
Not a TV addict when I am on campus...but late night TV is always reserved for movies on HBO/Star Movies at home

48. Favourite Smell?
Post Rain, Choclate....and the smell of chicken boiling with the umpteen number of spices...delicious!!

49. Have you ever regretted breaking up with someone?
Hehehe...haven't even started a relationship to break one!!...

50. Most tiresome thing you’ve ever experienced/done?
Just cannot figure out how to console my friends when they are not in a good mood.


How I wish this list goes on...now that it has ended...have to look for something else to do...I seem to have fallen in love with boredom...everytime I think I am bored...I end up doing something...most of the times it happens to be blogging....hahaha!!!

10 reasons why you should stay awake all night.....

Here's my list of 10 reasons why you should wake up all night atleast when you are in campus....[:)]

1. You have all the time in the world for yourself.
2. You can surprise yourself with the amount of thoughts that your brain will generate in this hour
   
3. Enjoy unbelievable speed on the net
4. Watch movies….chat a lot…read a lot…..and yeah of course for some…ghot a lot
5. Enjoy the silence of the night….there are very few things which come as close to be pleasant as this.
6. walk out of the campus for a chai with some ppl and put latcha about every damn thing possible
7. Watch the sky being spilled with the rays of a distant sun
8. watch the moon fighting its best to maintain its existence, but eventually losing out to the might of the sun
9. Watch the sky turn red with the rising sun
10. Finally….you can see some of your wingies wake up the next morning and wonder what has he been doing all night….little do they know what they have been missing….of course…they never bother to look into the other side of the mirror…hehehe…

It's all about the Resume....

The other day, i was walking with a friend of mine and came across this bunch of guys who were having, one of those discussions over a cup of tea...and what i heard made me think for sometime. I remember, when i was sitting in the same place some 3 years ago, the discussion would go no further than who's the hottie on campus, nice gossip, who's hooking up with whom...you know one of those things which would light up your mood over a cup of chai...

But something has changed or maybe i have been blind to the change that's been taking place. Maybe this is not a universal thing...maybe there are still some people who have discussion like we used to have some time back....but invariably, every discussion these days should atleast have some topic of how the academics are going on...and friends meticulously guaging the number of problems that they have done from different books...(sometimes even sending the other chap into a frenzy when he realises that his counter-part has studied more than him)....and how pathetic or how wonderful the classes are going on...and most surprising of all the things....is one chap saying to another chap...dude, lets write a business plan...it would look good on the resume!!!....

Then i realised...that's the whole point...that's the whole point why we study for those 4 years...just 4-5 lines in your resume which would show that you have done something...or atleast pretend to have done something. For a moment, I thought if we could do something without considering that it would look good on the resume...I didn't have an answer immediately; but I am sure there is one...that's why i am still searching for one.

By the way, I seriously had no clue how to explain this thing about placements to a curious first yearite....after giving him a glimpse of how it is in psenti-sem...i wondered why he was asking me in the first place..that too in his first year....true that 4 years are actually too short in this place provided once you get used to its style of living...But i wonder what that chap could be doing now...maybe start doing all that quant and DI...and also vow to make 10's every sem...you never know...!!!

afterall, whatever we do....has to do something with making your resume more attractive!!

Is it worth it?

Time: 8:00 AM
Channel-A

Good Morning....Today's Headlines......

>PM meets Mussharf in Havana.
>Tensions escalate in middle-east
> Angry protests over Pope's remarks
> WI win the ODI against Aus....

Now take another channel B for example which is telecasting news at the same time.....

good morning....Today's headlines......
>PM meets Mussharaf in Havana.
> Girls win over college administration in Chandigarh.
> Minister fined for travelling without a ticket.
> Sting operation exposes xyz in UP.
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I think these are some of the common things that we come across in day to day life. what i mean to say is, how different news channels see different things as matters of national importance!!! Isn't there a limit to all the crap that we get to see in so many news channels. Thank God there are some specialized channels like Business channels, Cartoon Network and NGC/Discovery types.....otherwise it is the same old boring crap repeated over and over again.....and then there seems to be a new trend where the common man can voice his opinion.....through SMS. recently in one of the episode of "Laughter Challenge" there was a reference to these incidents which I would like to quote here......

"On a day not too far from now....the CEO of a newschannel was unhappy that his team was not doing enough to get all those "Exclusive" videos and "Flash" news, so he comes up with a plan to boost up the viewership of his channel; to telecast an incident before it even happens!!!!"
you must be wondering how this is possible???....Let us just for few minutes imagine that the channel goes ahead with this decision and later that day there is a kidnap scheduled to happen.....a girl is to be abducted by some goons and the newschannel comes to know about this. then the incident will be something like this.....
"Good Morning.....welcome to our special show...."Kabhar se pehle kabhar" . Today we will show you the girl who is going to be kidnapped exactly 5 hours from now......see this girl carefully; she's so young, so innocent, but she will be kidnapped by some goons without any kindness. This is an exclusive report.....let us take the opinion from the girl herself....."Mam....mam...you are going to be kidnapped in another 5 hours...how are you feeling about this?" The Girl says," well....i am kinda tensed, i have been told that i will be kidnapped; but they haven't specified how and who will kidnap me. i am really very excited, but i guess i would prefer if the goons don't use any knives because i am scared of sharp objects."......"That was the girl who will be kidnapped in another 5 hours by goons who will not see that she's so young and innocent....but will kidnap her in another 5 hours without any kindness.......this is XXX with Cameraman YYYY from Mumbai".

Studio: Thank you Mr.XXXX for your update on the incident which is going to happen later today. we will stay in touch with you throughout these tense moments. You, the viewers can also participate in our show, please send in your comments and letters to this address....."crap....crap.....crap...."....which leads to our question of the day...."What instrument will the goons use to kidnap this girl? A.Knive B.Pistol C.Lathi D.none of the above.....please remember the girl had earlier told us that she's afraid of Knives and other sharp objects.......you can see this in our exclusive footage....(scene repeats.......scene repeats....scene repeats.......until a wise thought knocks your head to shut down the crap and change over to something worthy.....)

Well maybe this programme hasn't yet invaded the channels, but going by the current trend that day will not be too far. I am baffled when i see the content of these so called 24*7 News channels......don't they run out of things that they can show!!!!! I guess this is exactly why there is so much of crappy repitition and all the worthless things that are picturised as matters of national importance. Check this out......

1.In the past few days i have seen reports about a snake which was chasing a young chap apparently to take revenge on him!!!! and later it was pacified after the villagers follwed the suggestions of a Baba...!!!!
2.In a village not too far from Delhi....people believe that some ghosts have occupied the police station.
3. In a village in Gujarat, people are not allowed to sing Himmesh resshamiya's tunes because a ghost haunts those who do it!!!!......(it is another matter that i seriously wish that ghost directly goes and sits in his studio, atleast that would prevent him from singing all that crappy songs...[:)]

and so on!!!!....In an attempt to show all these so called "exclusive" reports people go just too far to potray some of the most trivial matters as matters of national importance. it is high time we realise the job of media is just not to create sensation but also suggest/raise an issue which needs to be seriously looked upon. it is high time, that we realise that media ought to be an eye opener and not just an encyclopedia of human lives. is it really worth spending so much time getting all these things infront of people???.....is it really worth seeing all these sensational things???.....Is it really worth thinking about all these things???....Is it worth it???......

then an idea knocks my head and i become wise again......i switch on to HBO.....[:)].....alas!!! has been blocked in Maharshtra for apparently showing "A" rated movies......i wonder if the high court knows that there are more number of 18+ population than the people who whom this law is supposed to protect....[:)]