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Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!!
Here we are at the end of another year, on the brink of a new one…
The past year has been full of highs and lows during which my heart soared to touch the skies
with every new high and sank to the depths of sorrow with the lows.
2008 – A leap year. Many think this is unlucky while others think it works magic for them.
The year has given both sets of people the right to be correct! 2008 was a year when India saw medals
in the Olympics; Nadal won the Wimbledon beating all time favourite Federer; the Australia was defeated
by India and South Africa in test cricket (yeah it’s a good thing!!); India sent a spaceship into space;
an African-American became a US president elect and much more… The year gave us a bitter pill to
swallow with the US recession hitting the global markets; the numerous natural disasters around the
world; the bomb blasts in various cities of India; last but not the least the terrorist attack on Mumbai which
shook the world.
The past year has taught us to become stronger with every day, to learn to survive, to live and for this
I thank it! It has opened our eyes to new horizons, to new technologies, to new ideas. It has opened the
gates to blogging for me!! :-)
As the New Year approaches, it brings with it new hopes, new dreams, new horizons, new peaks to
conquer and lots of expectations. I hope that 2009 lives up to all this and more for all of you out there!
As I sign off with my last post for the year, I would like to say to all of you:
2009 is at the door…
Remember... Life is Short,
Break the Rules, Forgive Quickly,
Love Truly, Laugh Uncontrollably,
And never regret anything that made you Smile!
A Very Happy New Year to You & Yours!
Have been watching television since yesterday and to see various locations in Mumbai turned into a war zone is shocking and heart breaking to say the least.
My heartfelt condolences to the families of persons killed and taken hostage. I was feeling sick in the stomach when the fire broke out at the Taj. What would the people caught inside be going through. The fire fighters were doing their best but my imagination was running wild and I was feeling helpless watching other people trapped in the rooms adjoining the fire.
My heartfelt condolences to the family of the brave officers of the Mumbai Police who lost their lives leading from the front to take on these terrorists. Especially Hemant Karkare of the ATS who in the recent past was being targeted by various political parties for the work that he was doing. When will these politicians realize and admit that terrorists HAVE NO RELIGION. Terrorists are not Hindu or Muslim or Christian. They are not people of religion or God. They are people who have gone totally sick in their head and have to be dealt with in that manner. Hemant Karkare is an example of a brave officer who gave his life in the line of duty.
At this moment I pray that the brave officers of the Mumbai Police, the Indian Army, Navy, the NSG and the various other security forces dealing with the situation are able to end this crisis as soon as possible.
If it had just been a matter of simply fighting the terrorists the security forces would have dealt with it sooner, but here of course the situation is extremely complicated with many innocent lives at stake. The fact that the locations are huge hotels with multiple floors, hundreds of rooms, many corridors, staff quarters, work spaces, entries, exits etc, and have innocent guests still in there, have made the task very difficult and delicate.
I dread to think of how various political parties are now going to try and use this tragedy to further their political careers. At least now they should learn to not divide people and instead become responsible leaders. An incident such as this really exposes how ill-equipped we are as a society as far as proper leaders go. We desperately need young, dynamic, honest, intelligent and upright leaders, who actually care for the country.
Faith.
Jai Hind.
Adventure over top of a bus
This photo brings back my old memories...
Nearly 8 years back ,during Diwali holidays i had gone to stay in chennai for 3 weeks. we had planned to go to a friend's village. The village is located somewhere far. I forgot the name.
Since we didn't get frequent buses, we boarded a bus which was about to leave then. Boarded -- where?? Not inside the bus. But on top of the bus, where they used to keep big Sacks of vegetables/fruits. We were not the only passengers sitting on the top. Few other villagers were also giving us company.
Anyhow, it was a perfect rural ride (believe or not, I even slept for a while on the top - due to the breeze) and perfect rural holiday.
Some more space please!!!
Now come to the present day situation. Recently when I went to Chennai last year, I saw (not experienced) similar bus rides. The only difference is that the Chennai Bus Authorities didn't allow people to sit on the top of the buses. But rather, they allowed them to hang on the windows. Typical Example, is bus no.12B which shuttles between Vadapalani & Pattinapakkam.
In Mumbai, generally the public won't vote for a crowded location unless some sales promotion is going on there. Since the Public Transport System is too good here, people will wait for the next bus or train, rather than getting into the crowded one. They don't like getting squeezed during a travel. We can observe the same from their faces. There, the chennaites score a point. Irrespective of the crowd, they tend to get into the available bus or train.
They generally don't feel like waiting for the next one.
While preaching / advising the kids, we approach an issue in a particular way. But when it falls on us, the approach seems to differ (at times, diagonally opposite too). We do it most of the times, whatever be the reasons like 'to be practical' or 'to educate them' etc.,
Last week, my smallest cousin brother was called for by his school Principal to her room, along with 2 other kids. Once he returned from school, he started sobbing and told that he was called for and got advices. The reasoning provided by him was that he was amidst two fighting kids and incidentally got caught.Further queries revealed that he also beat one of those kids. Later he revealed somemore.. So, all of them together had done something and was sent to her room. The initial intention was to prove that he didn't do anything... a Kid's attitude!!!!
Advising session started.. that he should not hide things like this, blah blah.
But honestly speaking, we do hide or misrepresent certain facts in our day-to-day life due to circumstances.... Some may be obvious, some may not be.. all depends on the individual's perceptions, as to whether it is right or wrong. Few of those instances, where either I was in the receiving end or at the delivering end......
1) Hiding some actual facts from relatives or friends, assuming that they won't like it or will be hurt.
2) Hiding an achievement(!!) or acquisition of an object/asset, from those who may look into those with different eyes.. I mean jealousy ones.
3) When one of your colleague, asks you to give good opinion about him/her to a Teacher/sir/tutor - by acting as his 'Known friend' or 'Very good friend' eventhough your relationship with him/her is not as such.
The following are strange things, which you might or might not have encountered....
4) Not revealing the place of the next career move or misrepresent it.
5) Hiding a proposed holiday plan, to those who are not close to you.. even when they ask so many questions. [similar to (2) above]
6) Misrepresenting or hiding facts for business reasons... justifying them as business rules.
So, in today's practical scenario we don't follow 'Harichandra' rules. The situational demand (of hiding or misrepresentation) has become the norm of the day. In that case, how forcefully can we advise the next generation? I could realise that it would be upto some extent only. Till, they realise the trick of manipulation and cannot withstand our advices(!!).
Do you have some other similar scenario, where you were in the middle?
Imagine this situation. You explain something to someone [may be a difficult concept for the recipient, but carrot halwa(!!) for you] and the recipient understands it fully & shows the results as you expect. When you get the positive results, you feel elated as if you achieved that task. This need not be felt in big projects alone. You get that feeling, out of small incidents as well.
When your kid does it, there is no limit to the joy.. Take some difficult mathematical concept (in your kid's view) like Division or LCM or GCD, which may be easier one for you. You explain the concept in full and the kid feeds into his mind. When the kid performs well in the school and shows you the result, you will beam like anything (as if you personally achieved it).
I Myself had this experience when my friend delivered what she wanted. Her facial expression after writing one of our subject papers smoothly[computer programming paper], prompted me to post this. There was an absolute sense of relief & achievement on her face.
Think the other way around...
If it doesn't go into the recipient's mind, you feel vexed because of your inability to feed your thoughts. It would be like fighting against a wall. You may feel so desperate, that you may be in the verge of anger. After a gap, you may restart again from the beginning.
I hope each one of you might have had this experience with your friends (while studying or discussing generally) or with your colleagues / subordinates (in your workplace), while inculcating your views. Do you get the sense of achievement most of the time? (even if your thoughts have been understood, that's Ok..no need for further execution). Or is it like (I mean, the other way around)?
Atleast, you should have the recipient's expeience - In that case, do you make the feeder(!) satisfied or vexed?
Recently got a chance to read about an extra-ordinary soul... before reaching him, just go thru some of my scribblings too.. Whether it is in a job or in an academical institute, we need to move with seniors or tutors. Hopefully you would have encountered any one of the following personalities.
1) The magnanimous person who is very nice to you and is forthcoming in clarifying your doubts. These people give further advices voluntarily for improvement in our work.
2) Those who accept us as too complicated and doesn't enter into our territory. They just let us present our findings and reports, untouched. Either it must be because of confidence on us or due to less confidence on themselves to handle it.
3) There is another set of people, who don't pass on any work related info to us voluntarily. We need to go, beg and pull information from them to develop our career. If you have capability to extract, you survive in the game. Otherwise, you will be classified as dumb.
4) There exists this dangerous category who doesn't allow you to go up after knowing your skills. They delegate things to you and will be waiting for you to complete your work. Once it is ready, it will be snatched from you and presented to the Management without giving due credits to you.
Nowadays, many project results are achieved due to teamwork. So, snatching cannot be done visibly there. But still recognition of your efforts depend on your seniors presentation to the management. So, you need to pray for your luck too. I presume that in entertainment sectors these attitudes are more prevalent & rampant... whether it is stealing of one's story, lyrics, music etc., Musclemen wins over the weak people.
How about the medical services? Do you think your ability will be overshadowed by some high profile personality tactics? Even though it is possible,it cannot continue for long nowadays. Talents are spotted quickly in this medical industry and brought out to the light soon.
But it seems Mr.Hamilton Naki, was unlucky in those days. He was the black surgeon who was behind the worlds' first recipient of a transplanted human heart. But his contribution to the field was overshadowed by the apartheid laws and never revealed (immediately!!) by the chief surgeon Mr.Christian Barnard. Even though, Mr.Naki was recognized & honored at the end of his life, it was too late for he earned less than what he contributed to the society. I read an article on this great soul, which ignited me to make this post.
As I said earlier, your fate is determined by your luck of getting a kind superior. You may also be one of the above personalities while your Junior approaches you. Pl. note.... and take care of your juniors.
So far, I have not experienced the fourth personality alone.. in my graph. Hopefully, I would never.
After thoughts.. Genuine or not? can we trust strangers on the road?
Compared to the weekends, the crowd would be less on a weekday in wadala. Last Friday, I had taken off from my college and was there with my friends.
While we were walking on the road, a guy stopped me. My first impression was that it was a normal address query. He asked me if I have few minutes to spare. OK..that didn't seem to be an address query, as I thought. I nodded, inspite of my friends waiting for me.
It seems he was from Trichur, Kerala. In a mixed accent of Malayalam & English, he mentioned that he arrived here few weeks back and had got a job here in some company. He expected to get his Employment Pass within a week's time, since it has been applied for already. He added further that he was from a poor family and the money he had, had completely drained, with none of the shoppers giving him temporary jobs during his visit period.
He hesitantly asked (with moistured eyes) if I could help him to survive for few days. That was a tricky situation for me. By the look of it, he seemed genuine. But, I didn't know how to help and was not fully convinced. I could have suggested him to approach the nearby temples, since there was a possibility for them to help. But they might also be seeing 'n' no. of people like this regularly. So, I didn't suggest that idea.
When I suggested him to approach that the concerned Company (his prospective employer) to get an advance for his survival, he mentioned that he had approached them and they had refused to do so. Since I was hesitant to come forward, he offered to show his Apointment letter to prove his genuineness. He showered me with some jargons saying that my face looked so helpful(!!) and that's why he approached me. He added further with an innocent face, that it would be OK even if I don't trust & help him.
Now, I didn't want to go further on that talk, since my friends were waiting. So, I just managed to pass on some money to survive for two days. He just accepted it and left the place, thankfully.
Normally, this type of situation happens in india very often - when people migrate from villages to cities. Sometimes, it would put us in an awkward situation to evaluate the genuineness of those persons. This was the first time, I had encountered a similar situation.
After leaving that place, I had several unanswered questions -
Was he genuine?
Should I have enquired more about his educational background and checked his appointment letter?
Did I encourage him to go around like this further, to earn more?
During our weekend purchases, this season's fruit captured our attention as usual.... it is nothing but
Mangoes . As you know, in addition to the 40 degrees plus heat, Mangoes are the next attraction
of this summer season, in Tamilnadu. Even in matunga,(little chennai in mumbai) area was full of Mango crates of
different varieties.We pocketed few, since this is the end of the season. But the immediate question which
hit my mind, was whether it is worth eating?? Whether it is from reliable source?Reason being, the news
article in SUN TV a couple of days back. Several boxes of Mangoes were seized and thrown in Madurai,
since the trader was found to have used Calcium-Carbide, to ripen the mangoes.It would be delicious to
taste Mangoes which have gone through the natural processing of riping. But due to commercial reasons
and the high demand in the season, traders are sorting to these kind of gimmicks to market the unriped
mangoes. They follow the artificial maturation process by keeping small amount of carbide in a paper
pocket, inside the Mango crates. Eventhough,this process reduces the time taken for the manoges to
ripen, it diminishes the quality and taste. Certain companies are marketing their Mangoes with
guarantees that they are sun -ripened on the tree through its full term. (I hope I bought the right one...)
Initially, I thought it is only happening in our state (to my knowledge). Later on, I found out that it is a
common trick followed by several Mango growing countries, at international level.Profit-making attitude
is entering each and every avenue, nowadays. This Mango industry is not an exception to that rule. But,
the ultimate effect is on the quality and flavour of the fruit.
Another news, related to the same quality issue ....Everyone knows about the well known say 'An Apple
a Day, keeps the doctor away'. But, can this say retain its glory after few years, in this profit oriented
world? If you think that the Apple which you are buying is a fresh one, just reconsider once again... It may
look fresh and shiny, but might not have been plucked just few weeks back. Sometimes, it may be 6
months old.Recently, I read in Junior Vikatan that, in India too many cold-storage facilities have come up
everywhere to maintain the freshness of fruits. Due to the seasonal nature of the Apples, the traders are
bringing them at the appropriate season and storing there even upto 6 months. In addition to this
freshness issue, the acid cleansing for keeping the apples shiny, may affect the quality of the apples if
it exceeds the limit. Eventhough, the acid cleansing is followed internationally for polishing the apples(!!!),
too much of artificial dressing may affect the ultimate quality.
So, what is the limit for these type of artificial processes?
I hope that, the health authorities in India, will lay down some more rules in this respect. They need to
keep a constant watch and ensure that the traders in this industry adhere to those health rules, strictly.
Otherwise, even the doctors cannot advise their patients to take fruits, confidently. It should not end up
like this cycle of
'Health problem > Fruits > Health problem due to the fruits > ???'
Yesterday I tried to call a friend of mine over phone, to pass on a message. Was unable to reach her, continuously for an hour. It seemed to be my other friend's on the other end. I knew that both of them won't stop quickly, if they start. It happened so. Fortunately, the technology has improved a lot to reduce our telecom bills on a/c of International calls. Nowadays, they have started using webcams, skypes, chat rooms and what not. Otherwise,our wallets would have seen bigger holes ..
There is a general understanding that the female gender can be easily classified as Chatterboxes. Are they the only responsible souls for such a classification?
I believe they were provided with that opportunity, which they capitalised well. In those days, Men used to work a lot outside and women were destined to be housewives. To keep themselves occupied after their regular chores, they might have donned the role of chatterboxes. It may be a genetical order as well, which continues generation after generation. So, why to blame them??? I have decided to take it on my stride [no other go!!!]
The above scribbling doesn't undermine the fact that men are also Chatterboxes, if the profession demands. It is a question of relativity. Those days you had Tenaliramans & Birbals. Now we have our politicians to fulfill this task.
How to leave our younger male generation? Various chat rooms are there to fulfill what has been expected out of them in their job!!! (provided their employer has not blacklisted any chatrooms). I heard some Software companies in India, are not allowing Yahoo chatting. Who cares? Likes of Hello! chatroom are still available.
So, how do you classify yourself?
To finish this post in a further lighter vein, enjoy the following as well.
A Guide explaining the beauty of Niagara falls to the Tourists:-
"I welcome you all to the Niagara Falls. You are at the world's largest Waterfalls and their sound Intensity is so high, that the sound of even 20 Supersonic planes passing by can't be heard!!! Now, May I request the ladies to keep quiet so that we can hear the Niagara falls???????"
During the weekend outing, met one of my colleague in the MRT (local train). Eventhough, I don't have constant touch with him and not in my regular email groups, I used to interact with him on certain technical issues from time to time.
The discussions went on as usual on official front, since we didn't have any other topic to talk about. His approach on the subject which we were broaching on, made a Desi girl standing beside us to throw a strange look on us. Reason... 'I know everything...' type of deliveries which he had made. His added comments on certain process oriented work, which I used to carry out in my way, irked me a bit.
However, I am used to these type of talks nowadays. Whenever I used to meet up these people who talk this way, I simply smile and approve whatever they talk and go ahead... unless, it affects me directly where I may want to return back to them. During my school days, I didn't know how to differentiate these sort of talks. The journey thru the last couple of years and experience of meeting people of different races and countries, made it amusing to watch them talk.
Some people talk openly that 'their Organisation depends on them completely and nothing will move without them'. Possibly, true. The way they deliver it, may put us in an awkward postion. You may end up hearing some sarcastic comments too about others' abilities. But hearing it directly from the horse's mouth may make us uncomfortable
However, these talks are better than those pessimistic ones. Whatever they talk may bring in unwanted jitters at that moment. I used to avoid them as much as possible or try to put their perspectives positively. If they keep on continuing, I simply close my ears.. and keep on nodding for whatever they talk... Best way to handle them :-) :-)
The best hilarious part is the third categorey of people. When they ask you a query and when you start explaining it, they used to continue 'ah.. I know this, I know this.. ' etc., After sometime, when you ask 'what will you do next?'.. you get reply 'that's what I don't know'.You may happen to see some more facially expressive people - who smiles at you simpy. You may have to work hard to pull out words from them. The output may generally be short and sweet.
However, the best & ideal way of talk which you don't get to see 100% of the time is this.
'... I'm confident that it may happen. Let us see what happens.. It is OK, even if doesn't happen.. Let us put some additional efforts again, to achieve the same' etc.,
This seems to be Practical and Positive. But you don't get to see this approach with everyone you meet.
Would always be glad to be ideal as well as to move with ideal personalities as close as possible... to make my life and surroundings better. One of my ideal dreams... on which I work on constantly.
It was another year which had gone by.. and I moved into the next year, this week. Every year it comes and goes, so what's the speciality this year? Ok.. this time, I have more people to share some of my views.
It was an occasion which I had never noticed or realised so much during my school days . It was just like any other day. Only at the time of filling up some application for some purpose, I bring it out of my mind. Even going to the temples on this day was rare.
But it has changed during the last couple of years. It has become a day on which you feel that some people are aware of it - family / friends .I should definitely include. Greeting cards, SMS, Special cake offers blah blah.... some special gifts occasionally.
This time, my little brother blushed while giving me a self-made B'day card and a small key chain. When my cute frnd komal gave me a wrapped box, he got very curious to open it instantly. Since I wasn't that curious to open it immediately, komal insisted on it. Her words, 'Be curious to open your gift.. Be a kid'. I obliged.. hey, it was a cute Laughing Buddha. There was an instant laugh from my little brother on seeing his belly.
There is a general belief that rubbing his belly brings wealth, good luck, prosperity. I hope I don't rub his belly too much. I don't want him to become lean.. :-) :-)
Another aspect which I could observe was the smiling face. It's not even a smile.. a big laugh. It insists on enjoying the life every moment and laugh at good things instantly, not only smile. I don't laugh out loudly.. just a Chuckle. Aren't we supposed to laugh at good things to make ourselves light? I have learnt it in the recent days.... to laugh like a kid.
Eventhough I don't crack nice jokes, I made it a practice to enjoy the moments...
Laughter is the best medicine for many ills... so better LOL and enjoy each and every moment of the life... :-) :-)
Eventhough this imaginery signboard is hilarious, it made to me think for a while... It looked like an age-old cartoon, not suitable for today's trend.
@ Are the males so careless & inefficient, in odd jobs?
@ Do the Women work around all the time, efficiently?
@ Aren't both the genders diversified into all the professsions?
.
Nowadays, males & females get equal opportunities to excel everywhere.. atleast, the trend is improving and encouraging, if not fully followed. Leave apart certain parts of the world, where dominance or stamping is still existing. I mean the stamping like "this is what you are supposed to do -- this is what I will do"
.
Let us get into my introspection!!! I identified 4 different set of people.
.
Equal Opportunity
Most of the MNCs have become Equal-Opportunity employers, whereby both the genders get equal preferences. The opposite genders have started coming up in the male dominant industries like Designing, Engineering,Aeronautics, Movies etc., and the female dominant areas like Cooking, Housekeeping & Pleasure-industry (Trying to find a better word for this "---" industry). But immediate industry dominance by the opposite gender is not going to happen quickly.
.
Naive giving in
There is one section where one gender gives in completely to the other gender's dominance. They always feel that the opposite gender is better than them. It happens at my home itself. My Father always give up cooking, since my mom does better than him. (doesn't mean that he cooks badly!!). The same way she gives up some areas in the family management. No interest in taking up additional responsibilities.
All-in-All
I have come across another set of people, who always like to excel in whatever they do. Whether making some tasty 'sambhar', changing diapers , cleaning vessels (bachelors know better).. where males generally score poor marks. You have a new generation of females who excel in all the fields they enter.
Dominance Plays
There is another horrible section of people (particularly males) who categorically deny chances for females to swap the jobs - I mean male chauvinists, who think females are supposed to do only house chores and they are born for that. Eventhough, these kind of thoughts are coming down in developed countries, they are still prevalent in several parts of Indian and Chinese communities. It may take a long time to amend these people's mind.
Since the above cartoon was on a male,
Female bloggers - What do/did you expect out of the opposite gender?
My Gender bloggers - How do you want to present yourself?
.
Now the voting.....starts.
Candidate.1 - Who gives equal opportunities to females to show their skills.
Candidate.2 - Who is naive and doesn't do anything - because he accepts that the opposite gender is better than him.
Candidate.3 - Who does everything without leaving a chance for the opposite gender to excel.
Candidate.4 - Who dictates that, "this what a female is supposed to do" (I believe no body will vote for him, since there is a open ballot box!!!)
.
I believe candidate no.1 will do better and candidate no.4 will be the loser!! Want to Bet????
.
Did I diversify too much from the start to the end? Or has it become one sided?
Yikes! I almost forgot that I had a blog! Been ages and ages and some more ages since I last posted on my blog. I guess there are several reasons ranging from hectic work schedules to erratic internet connections (the main reason, however, is my eternal laziness).
Hmm.. Right now, the time is 12:35 AM (What a beautiful time to write a blog) on 13th June 2008. I'm on hunt for the past few days for certain "Admi" reasons (get the hint). However, I don't seem to be making much use of this hunt, as is evident from the fact that I'm spending this hunt writing blogs!
Phew!! The past several months of hectic preparation FOR HSC EXAMINATION 2008 finally culminated in a nerve-wracking two and a half-hour climax last Saturday(07/06/2008). And boy, was it a cracker! This was one hell of a wild cat - tough, tricky and dangerous. I was majorly mauled, but have survived to tell the tale!
First of all, the main lesson I learnt from this exam result : Never underestimate others' intelligence and your own stupidity.
Was it tough? You bet! But then, that's the fun in it - as I keep saying - the bigger the challenge, the greater the glory. It doesn't get bigger and more challenging than this! This was surely the final frontier in terms of mental challenges after going through emotional trauma from many of my folks.
Was it possible to tame it? Possibly. Could I have fared better? Definitely yes. But then, days are rare when each and everything goes exactly as planned. So, I end up with a score that is tantalizingly close to an PODAR COLLEGE call.(Podar Closes at 83% for BMS - Bachelor of Management studies ,and i got 81%) So near, yet so far. That's when you realize the value of a single mark. A mark that could have probably made a difference of a lakh in my earnings,in my behaviour towards other people as well as in the respect which i could have got from my friends and folks. A mark that could have changed my career, my life. Just one silly, goddamned mark.
I've always felt, that marks are like money. Inspite of how much you get, you still feel like having some more. That was exactly the case here. From what I can see, my performance here has been better than most of my mock cats [:)] That gives me some kind of solace and comfort.
As for the hope of that one single PODAR call, well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed ! The suspense unravels after another 10-odd days... Till then... adios amigo and hope for the best!
Another 10 days of hunt to go, and less than 25 days before the feline finally strikes. Let's see whether I have an adequate answer this time. Every day I motivate myself with lots of inspirational thoughts and movies like "Chak De!" "Taare Zameen Par" and crap like that.. but every morning brings me crashing back to reality..
reminding me that I'm just an ordinary bloke among the crowd, who stands no chance.
I'm gonna need lots and lots of favours from a certain lady, named Miss Luck.. But right now, she seems to be in a rather grumpy mood, so I'm just gonna hope that she finally smiles on me on the D-day.. (or rather, the C-day!).
Chalo cya.. the next post on this blog will probably be after my
rendezvous with Miss Kitty, and I hope I survive to tell the tale!!!
After the dreadful heat of summer the first rain alleviates all the sorrows , pain problem and malaise ephemerally ,the tiny droplets from heaven does not only have a pleasing effect on the physical or material world but to a great extent on to the psyche but mind you !!All this only for the first drizzle which heals the heated geography like human problems and anger, which is placated and it gives the feeling that all sorrows pain are at once washed away leaving behind the titillating scent of the earth .there is new life new energy experienced by every living being .so far so good but what about people with destitution who are forced to capitulate to misery there livelihood becomes difficult , the beautiful rain now assumes a devil incarnate , lashings its fury on whoever is vulnerable .a sinister its thunder and lighting are the malediction to human existence and humorous part is it always challenges our sophisticated metrology department and proves that’s his capricious nature could not be predicted. With such advance satellites man is still a failure, rain dismisses any provision which municipality or any principal authority would recommend so what do we do pray to god or scientifically understand that its Malthus principle which cannot be challenged and so stop eradicating the maneuvers, deforestation
Hmmmm... After surviving with an Outdated PC at home, I've finally got a new one. And how!! A roaring 64-bit x86 Core-2-Duo 4400+ engine, powered by an Intel 944Ghz chipset-based motherboard, with a princely 512MB of Transcend DDR2 667 MHz RAM, plus a royal 256MB 7600GS graphic card which handles heavy-duty games like kid stuff. This is one wild beast for sure! And oh yes, there's also the visual and audio treat provided by the 17" Widescreen flat LG monitor and my beloved Creative Lansing audio system. Life sure has come a long way from my frail old Pentium III.
What makes this new Updated PC special is that each and every part in this rig was handpicked by me after nearly seven months of painstaking research, and learning on computer hardware. All this hard work has finally culminated into a final product that has no possible drawbacks to the best of my knowledge. There is this immense feeling of joy when the shopkeeper at Lamington road tries to con you into buying something inferior, and you are able to see through his tricks. The knowledge that you know more about hardware than the guy in front of you.. it truly gives you a feeling of superiority. Knowledge is definitely a kind of power!
Well finally I am writing My Blog after exactly Three Long Months...Kwell i was a bit busy dese days ..Nowadays, I am busy meeting friends. And I found that I have more friends than required! Every weekend, I have one returning to Mumbai, or going away from Mumbai. So every Sunday, there is either a farewell party or a reception party.
My folks are highly bugged ("On weekdays, you are hardly seen at home, now you run away on weekends too!"). Actually sometimes I agree with them too
Every now and then, I run into a few old friends. And almost everytime, I get that nostalgic feeling - the typical "those were the good old days" kind of emotion that takes you back in time when life was much simpler, our hearts and minds were clearer, unlike the emotional muddles and ego hassles that we are in now.
I met someone the other day. This was a guy who I was not too close to during my school days. Most of the time, I used to look at him with a contempt, a guy who I felt was a troublesome pest. But that day my mind was surprisingly devoid of such feelings. I spoke with him as though he was a dear friend. We chatted for nearly an hour, reliving the days gone by. He seemed to have undergone a complete change from the guy that I had known during my childhood. He was now more sober, more polished in his behaviour and speech, more sophisticated in the way he conducted himself. When I pointed out this change to him, he replied back, "You have changed a lot too!". I desperately wanted to ask him, "For the better or worse?", but I stopped myself.
The question still keeps haunting my mind.
Well, to begin with the story of my life, I'll have to flash back to the 8th day of the seventh month of 1991, in a nursing home in tambaram, chennai... that was where a child was born. We have a family tradition of naming a child after one of it's grandparents. My grand-dad's name was Vedamurthi, which sounded kinda obsolete to my parents. So (thankfully) they decided to find a more modern name, at the same time retaining the name of lord krishna(again a family tradition). And thus the child born that day was named Navneeth Krishnan.
Soon we shifted to this nondescript suburb of Greater Bombay called Kurla, and I've been living here ever since. My school wasn't an exceptionally good one either (When I passed out of it in 2006, it didn't have even a good internet connection). But then, you couldn't find "posh" schools in Wadala. Yet, for the fees I paid, the school was pretty good. The faculty, mainly composed of Malayali ladies, was passable. Of course, you don't really require extremely talented teachers to teach in primary schools, and by the time I passed the crucial tenth standard, I managed to secure good marks in my SSC Examination good enough to get a seat in Ramchandar's Institute a very well known coaching institution in mumbai. For my Hsc Examination I surrendered myself to the coaching class system (which by the way, was a great help) .
At first, I was in for a big culture shock. I felt like a village simpleton who has come to a city. Everyone around was conversing in English, wearing chic clothes, and flaunting fancy gadgets. And here I was, Normal, dark and bespectacled, barely able to speak fluent English. My written English was reasonably good, but when it came to speaking it, I used to lay a huge egg. Thankfully, all the folks in my class were quite friendly, and before I knew it, I had a gang of really good friends. In fact, they my best friends till date - we still meet up regularly. The two years that I spent here were probably the best in my life. I cherish every moment that I spent in Ramchandars, be it the Accountancy sessions which we thoroughly enjoyed or the Organisation of commerce sessions which we thoroughly bunked. The hours that we spent in the class gymkhana, absorbed in chess duels.. oh boy.. those were the days! (I know it sounds extremely geeky, but I was indeed quite geeky in those days.)
In the month of december 2007, I landed up in an extra special training lectures sessions in my class for HSC Examinations, and that's where the four enlightening months of my life began. I desperately needed some confidence to talk to people. I felt that by becoming a Class representative, I would gain some of that confidence. Also one wise guy had told me that you get extra term guidance if you became the CR (I'm still looking out for that guy). Thus, I became the Class Representative for the first few semesters of my class. I was entrusted the responsibilities of cancelling class tests, postponing submissions, getting free lectures, co-ordinating with the profs and so on. It wasn't an easy task at first considering that I'm a pretty lazy person. It was a thankless job as I soon found out, a job where I had to walk the tightrope between pleasing students and being in the profs' good books at the same time. The first few days I did it with utmost sincerity, which means I slogged like a jackass running from classroom to staffroom and back again. Precious lunch breaks were spent in collecting assignments, and talking to profs about future tests and assignments. Soon I grew a bit wiser, and managed to cut down on my sincerity. Nevertheless this stint gave me more benefit than harm - I did indeed develop a bit of confidence, and could now manage to speak decently in front of people.
These four months passed by in a blur.. Every semester was more or less the same - the initial two weeks spent in getting my bearings back on track after every semesters, the next week busy writing goddamn sunday tests. Then there would be the hectic final week, lost in completing (read copying) assignments and lab exercises. The last few days of the semester would be spent in trying to get hold of the semester syllabus, xeroxing coaching class notes, and bracing myself for the prelims. I would barely scrape through with my prelims (the more unfortunate ones in my class had the misfortune of writing re-tests and re-re-tests). Finally we used to have a five days of preparatory leave, where I never used to prepare. And before we knew it, the main exams had whooshed past by. Another semester gone! This continued in every semester, until one day I woke up and realized that Five semesters had passed already. I was Prepared for HSC Board Exam! End of Class life, end of honeymoon! HSC BOARD EXAMINATION 2008, here I come!
How can one not love a movie about children crafted with utmost compassion - children with special needs at that? But, is that the only reason I liked Tare Zameen Par? Maybe - maybe not. What I know for sure is that a strong one-line story is narrated extremely charmingly. It is truly uplifting when spirit wins and yet, it is not all about the spirit of winning.
Tare Zameer Par is about a child who suffers because no one around him recognizes that he is a slow learner. The beauty of the narration is that the message applies to all children - learning disability or not. How can creativity not deserve a place in academics? It also points a very subtle finger at how we build conformation in our system right at the roots.
The pace of the first half gives you time to think of normal children who are just not academically inclined. The resolution in the second half, however, comes by too quickly compared to the trauma shown earlier. But, I guess, if the point is to show that difficulties can be overcome, you don’t necessarily want to show how difficult it is to overcome them.
About 45 minutes post-interval, Darsheel Safary (Ishaan) said a line which made me realize that he hadn’t said a line in the last hour or so. There I was feeling sorry for Ishaan, feeling like yelling at someone to give him a big hug while I fought this lump in my throat that had been there for the longest time. All this based solely on Darsheel’s expressions and body language!
Kudos to the director for taking this decision and many such with brilliant confidence. And, finally we have a dialogue writer who knows when not to give the actors a helping hand. There are a couple of verbose, preachy scenes. But, they made the point because they were well written.
Aamir Khan’s entry into the movie seemed over-the-top and forced, mainly because it was in absolute contrast with the tone of the movie thus far. But after a little while you realize that you can’t distinguish between the actor/director Aamir Khan and his character Nikhumb. They are both fighting the same cause. Passionately. The other characters serve their purpose as caricatures - stereotypical father, loving mother, understanding sibling, ruthless teacher, and jeering peers.
No matter who or what the focus of the camera is, the love it feels towards its subjects shows in each frame. And, in turn, you fall in love with what you see on screen. Compositions, lighting, angles, colors all work successfully together to engross you and very often to enchant you. The lingering camera might have added a good 10-15 minutes to the run-time. But you will be hard-pressed to point out exact scenes which the movie could have done without. Everything is building character or atmosphere or both.
The songs too contribute to the narrative. The lyrics are sheer poetry. I know-I know, that’s what they are supposed to be, but can’t remember the last time lyrics brought me to tears. “mein kabhi batlaata nahi” kept me speechless (and we all know how difficult that is!). And rock-style guitar strumming to a kids’ song - that’s what I call creative.
Yes, that dash of seemingly inevitable melodrama exists. The side-characters transform for no apparent reason. The climax is wonderful and is as realistic as it could get. However, the aim is to show not reality of life but reality of the condition that this child suffers from. Once you get that, you pardon the make-up a mother is wearing at 6 AM while doing her chores. And anyway, most of this is towards the end, by which time you are willing to forgive. Because, above all else, it makes you think.
When did we grow up? When along the way did we forget what it felt like to be yelled at, to be put down, to be ridiculed? And why did we choose the next generation for revenge? Will we recognize the child in us that is struggling to get out? Will the sensation that the lump in the throat created, stay after the credits roll?
