Politically InCorrect

Keying this blog from a Dell laptop in itself is a joke!

I come from an unfortunately small group of people who considered the trade bans as a boon in disguise to Indian entrepreneurs. The only chapter in whole of One Night @ Call Centre that I really liked and appreciated was the one in which Mr. Bhagat analyzes how we were crazed by so-called world class goods, but they considered us as a "market" where they could sell off their excess produce, or recover from their lost market.  http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/soumyadipchoudhury/2805/62258/dear-steve-jobs-why-have-you-forsaken-india.html

Our open border is a gateway for third-rate goods. We have statistics that in a single year, a country exported more batteries than its cumulative battery production over the years. Why to blame the open borders, when WE, those very Indians who buy these good are the root cause of all blame. To top it all, when we know that those goods are really 3rd rate, and worse when we know that those goods are not made in India, and are killing our small-scale industries.

To save a few bucks, (which we spend in junk food joints anyways) we are putting our country's economy at stake.

The will to stay alive

In India, nearly all heritage sites are spoilt by crazy people who carve their names on the beautiful treasure. Reason? They think that by doing this, a part of them, their identity, will stay alive forever.

Oh, by the way, carving your name on something seems to be an universal phenomena, I saw this inside University of California, Berkeley. I seriously used to think intellectuals are sane !

My friend tagged her friend, an army man, who had recently died, in a Facebook post as an ode.
There was a very close-knit group of 4 girls in Ferguson. They were friends since school, always hanged out together, and couldn't just imagine themselves sans any member. Once, when I called one of them after college days, she told me that one of the friends, Aditee had died recently of typhoid. I was very upset, and was thinking about the group whole day. Those were the days when Orkut had just gained a foothold amongst youth. At night, I smsed my friend that why dont we keep Aditee's Orkut page alive, and write a scrap to her page every time we miss her.

One of my friends in Cummins was the year-wise Sports Secretary. I was very keen about a very difficult and trying night trek, Enduro-3 K2S. I was told that an all-girls group had completed the trek last year, and one of them was Sonal Argade, another Sports Secretary. I just met her once, and I was very impressed about her zeal for life and enthusiasm about sports in general. A few months later, I came to know that Sonal had died during a trek in the Himalayas. Just meeting her once had created such a lasting memory, it struck me, that a person stays forever in the memories of friends.

Quoting 'Columbus'ache garvageet,
"kotyavadhee jagataat jivaanoo jagatee an maratee 
jashee tee gavataachee paatee,
naavik aamhi parantu firato saat nabhaan khaalee 
nirmito nav kshitije pudhatee! "

Let the will to be immortal not be destructive for some beautiful monument, rather be an inspiration for one and all, to create something unique, to leave back a legacy that no one will ever forget. 

Life..Eternal

A friend wants to be fit enough to live up to the era where science will have found a way to be immortal. Read an RD article- Can Science Defeat Ageing and Death, where they claimed that Medicine is at such a stage that you can virtually replace every part of your being to get a "younger" albeit artificial version of yourself. Cut to a British woman, who has got over 50 plastic surgeries to keep her looking forever young, with some being as bizarre as a surgery to smoothen wrinkles from the back of her palm.

SHASTRA, TechFest of IIT Madras had some quiz, in which the question posed was- what change would you have made in the human anatomy, if you were God. I had replied- say, you are down with a real bad cold, I would added a way you could keep your nose aside till all is well again. But replacing every other thing of the overall entity that is quintessentially you! I find it too weird to even contemplate. The only solace being, as long as they dont find a way to replace the soul! I want that impending anti-nature future to be pushed as far as possible from today.

Also, nature has a way of getting back at us. If we bend all limits of time and physics, may be nature will spurn a disease so terrible that we couldn't even imagine, to exterminate the race. Worse still, is a notion that we would use up all sustenance and eventually resort to cannibalism.

My cuture/ religion believes in "manvantar", a doomsday that wipes out life, only to celebrate the resurrection that follows.  As J.K Rowling puts it, life is all about growing old and wise, and eventually greeting death like an old friend. Afterall, death is but a deep sleep. How can we appreciate life, if we are not scared of death? Quoting an immortal, Edward Cullen in Midnight Sun- We would trade anything to be a human.

March against Corruption

Feels great to sing your National Anthem abroad..had that special moment yesterday..

We, the people, got together, as a solidarity towards Anna Hazare. We had a march round the university with lighted candles, and eventually placed those candles at the Plaza of Americas in the University.

My friends' reactions to the march..

What change can a bunch of people protesting abroad make to the scenario here..The whole of India is afflicted with the "chalta hai" attitude. The first step to tackle any issue, is to acknowledge that the issue exists. The group just did that. After all, the essence of  democracy lies with people voicing their opinions. Many Indians were not aware of the sacrifices of Shanmugham Manjunath, Satyendra Dubey, Yashwant Sonawane. After yesterday, I hope, at least few more people would be encouraged to get out of their shells and keep abreast of the world at large.

Don't you think you are putting your country in bad light with such marches..Well, in a way, yes. But then, did the Commonwealth game village photographs did us any good? Or, does anyone claim that no corruption exists in any other country? The image about any country is all about the youth, the future of the country, and if the youth is aware and opines strongly, surely its a positive image.

Lastly, it serves a much deeper purpose. It reflects the bond, the bond that holds us all together.  

:)

Recently read a blog - 1000awesomethings.com..Anecdotes, which might seem mundane, but actually, looking back, are quite hilarious.

Some of my happy/ funny moments this week..
Missing 2 buses in a row:
For a change I got ready on time, and rushed to get the bus that would take me to college on time..there are 2 buses 12 and 35, 12 is faster and takes a shorter route to college. I saw the bus approaching and crossed the street breaking into a sprint. 12 was just approaching and 35's driver saw me running, so waited for me. I just ignored the waiting driver and ran to 12, which was a full bus, and both the buses left sans me. There goes my rare chance of reaching class punctually.

I was in my Project partner's lab, and his labmates love playing football. One guy in the lab set up a contraption such that the football, triggered by keyboard motion, would fall on his labmate's head. But he gave the trick away as he was too insistent that the guy move his keyboard. :)

Cheer meets you unexpectedly down the lane.  After all life is all about finding cheer in small things and achieving overall happiness by counting these daily blessings. 

The Portrait - Nikolai Gogol

Ever since I read and loved the "Namesake", I wondered about Nikolai Gogol. Recently i read his short stories collection and was intrigued by "the Portrait".

A fan of  The Picture of Dorian Gray, I dont want to compare the two works. Each is unique of its own accord. Both deal with supernatural, and the concept of evil being stored in a picture, evil that sought to destroy all goodness around it. While Dorian loses his virtuousness and untarnished soul, the artist in Portrait loses his inspiration. He paints to gain money and worldly pleasures, and finally when he realizes he lost his art, he grows jealous and destroys other's masterpieces.

Society and its expectations influence not only art, but it tries to muffle science too. Dan Brown mentions that Leonardo da Vinci painted another version of his "Madonna of the rocks" after his work was termed un-christian, almost heretic. Copernicus's heliocentric theory was rebuffed too.

On a psychological note, the "Portrait's" painter realizes that his painting has captured evil. He tries and succeeds to amend his life and art. The painter, thus is the lone "survivor" of the painting's evil. The Portrait ends with a cliffhanger- when the portrait disappears and the readers wonder whose life will the portrait destroy next. (Had this been a Bollywood flick, we would have had a sequel to it :P)

Unite to stop corruption

India has exemplified that a million united men protesting non-violently can achieve wonders. The history has been repeated many times when we united to successfully protest against Emergency in 1976, to save Narmada, Mahadai (goan river), Himalayan flora(Chipko) or to correct the justice denied to Jessica Lal. Our recent mass ventures are protest against nuclear plant in Jaitapur, Maharashtra; and against Genetically Modified foodgrains. Its time we support Anna Hazare in his fast to pass Jan Lokpal Bill, which gives us the right to file corruption complaint against any high ranking official.

Satyendra Dubey wrote a secret letter to the then Prime Minister detailing corruption in Golden Quadrangle Project. It doesnt take genius to guess that the corruption was rampant in PM office too, and Satyendra Dubey was murdered for fighting against corruption.

Citing an allegory penned by Chetan Bhagat-- we trusted golden ducks to lead us. Our children were killed and we suspected crocodiles, but when the ducks said there are no crocodiles around, we blindly believed them until one day we discovered that the ducks had ganged up with the crocodiles.

United, we can strip these ducks of their goldenness amassed out of public wealth.

Deja vu?

Last April marks 2 moments which changed my life forever..

I was scheduled for an interview at 2 pm, and my lectures got over by 12. I went to my lab to get the printout of my call letter. I was chatting with my project partners and other friends, and nearly deleted a mail as spam because the sender was unknown to me, without reading the subject line completely, Just when I clicked it to delete i finally read- Congratulations, you have been admitted to UF-ECE!  I composedly called up mom and a friend and calmly proceeded to the interview, got the job- a Telecom sector dream company, a job which many of my friends were vying for.

You think its your life, you are its master, and all the choices you have made are your decisions, BUT, God has already planned out everything for you. God leads you into the situation at the perfect timing, all this while he is silently building up the climax. Had I got the mail earlier, there was a chance I would have put it off. It was a time when I knew my GATE score was good enough to get me into NIT's or COEP, but not to IIT's. I had another offer with a software company too, which, after the initial euphoria of getting it subsided, I didnt want to take up as it was unrelated to my domain. Given the timing of the mail, and the new job offer!!

Looking back, I dont even remember how and when I decided to apply for GRE. All I remember is just calling up mom and saying I am booking a GRE date. But what I do remember, very clearly, is that I have had this feeling since school that I would get that S/w company's offer, and somehow knew that I would be in US, just that my intuition had told me the time of my US sojourn as 2 years later. Deja vu? Sixth sense? No, those are the directives you keep on getting from God, but just have ignored them all along till the whole scene manifests itself.

Those who joyfully leave everything in God's hands will eventually find God's hands in everything. Worry ends where faith begins.

Fleur's parchment

I was 11 when Harry Potter started school as a 11 yr old wizard. I solved potions puzzle with Harry in the Sorcerer's stone, screamed when my friend threw a rubber spider at me in the Chamber of Secrets, kept wondering about Harry-of-future saving Harry-in-present, (thanks to that scene, HP3 is my most favourite movie of the lot), was jolted when Voldemort was back, cried when Sirius died, blamed Snape for Dumbledore's death, had always predicted that Harry was a horcrux...

Just after school, we formed a group of HP-fans, with Radha as Hermione n me Fleur. A conversation, after junior college, I remember making with a girl in my college was about the harry's guiding patronus being a silver doe. Coincidently, the girl is now my roommate, and we have several animated HP talks at home now.

Literally we grew up with Harry Potter..

One nation..One Passion..

After a 28 yr wait..finally we won the World Cup..
We eat cricket, we sleep cricket, we dream cricket..in a nutshell..we LIVE cricket..

Politicians will welcome this chance to make people forget their woes..BCCI will give away 11 crore+ taxpayer's rupees..All in the name of a sport which successfully pulls scores of kids away from video games, is a lifeline for a billion..and most imp. a sport, which in its unique perspective, attempts to bring 2 nations closer