What after +2?

Yet another academic year has ended and a fresh batch of school pass-outs are now ready to enter college. When I saw the results of the Tamilnadu State Board for Std.XII, the one major feeling that overcame me was Relief! 

Relief that I had completed this four years back and didn't have to face the competition of a batch that has produced 120 students with 200/200 cut-off (for Engineering admission).

That apart, I've also been playing the role of a career counselor ( :D ) to quite a few relatives and friends. The one thing that is unshakable in all of them is the belief that a degree in Engineering is the one and only elixir in their lives. Looking back by four years, I find that I was quite determined about this degree too, that is, after my earlier career choice of journalism was ruled out. Did I have any particular reason for taking up this course I've been through these four years? Frankly No. It was one of the best available options for my rank and its "scope" was highly spoken of. Hence, I cannot completely criticize those 198.somethings and 199.somethings for their choice of Engineering. But the advantage of a B.E. degree is restricted mainly to the college from which one graduates. 

The various factors that people consider for choosing among several similar colleges are: 

• Faculty
• Infrastructure
• The most important one - Placements

Faculty- this factor is no longer relevant. Even in some of the most respected colleges, all you find is a handful of professors who know their subjects and are in the profession for something more than the monthly cheque. But it is a fact from personal experience that a really good teacher will make one love the course and study it in depth.

Infrastructure- This too, does not matter and can be obtained with a few hundred crores of rupees (which should not be a problem with the private businessmen who start Engg colleges as more of an investment). 

Placements- This is where the hitch arises. The companies that recruit in masses from most of the colleges do not offer job profiles suitable to the knowledge gained through the four year course. Relevant jobs (the really good software jobs and the core jobs for hardware students) are offered only to students from the cream of all colleges. 

A very important factor that is not looked into properly by the diehard engineering aspirants with lower cut-offs is the peer group. However high one's aspirations may be, if he/she is part of an unmotivated group, it doesn't take long to lose focus.

The gargantuan demand for an Engineering degree is understandable. In four years, you start earning 20-30k per month which most students' parents didn't earn until they reached their 40s. But what I'd give more preference to is the suitability of the candidate to the job he takes up. This is where our Indian Education system's serious flaw comes to mind. 

For a Science group higher secondary student, any degree other than B.E. or MBBS (at ANY college) or their approximate equivalents like the integrated MSc (at a few reputed colleges) is a shame to hold. A friend openly told me this when I advised him against a B.E. at a college that would suit his cut-off. The reason for this - jobs cannot be obtained easily if you are not a B.E. holder.
We all prefer a stable life. Fulfilling our personal passions with respect to career is not as important as keeping our family happy and satisfied with that steady monthly salary. But at the same time, we are not as independent a society as in some Western nations. We are family-oriented. We like sticking together rather than live as strangers under a roof. All these are things I love about Indian culture. But this in itself should not be a deterrent to following one's passions. For this, we need the families' and at large the society's support. They don't need to do much. Allow enough space for the "other kind of" professionals to exist and achieve whatever they are talented to do, in life.

Oligarchy in Camouflage

The Tamilnadu Assembly election results, declared on Friday the 13th, bore no suspense or surprise. Those who genuinely expected the incumbent party to return to power would have been the people who would have believed the voting populace to be short of the six senses that human beings are generally endowed with.

Yes, People have voted for change. But is it a change for the good or for the lesser evil?  

For the past two decades, we have had the two biggies - DMK & AIADMK - taking alternate turns to rule the state (and fill their coffers). Now it is simply the latter's turn. 

I couldn't understand why people wanting a change for better governance would elect convicted people. After all, with an 80.3% literacy rate in this state, would people be averse to having some fresh air in the arena of politics?

A new party, started by a common man and not a well-known (and of course influential) cine actor, seems to rise to power only in movies like "Ko" (what it takes for that to happen, is quite plainly shown in the film). The Lok Satta Party, that fielded candidates who looked fresh and ready to bring in some change, has lost in all constituencies. A truly inspirational candidate, Mr. Sarathbabu, lost in Velachery, coming behind not only the AIADMK but also the candidate of PMK which is a party that is the embodiment of absolute fickleness! How many BITS, Pilani + IIM A graduates would give up lucrative careers to serve the people? The few stalwarts who do so are nipped in the bud. How can we then expect more youngsters to join the losers' bandwagon?

India is a democracy - so said my Civics textbook. But it looks more like an oligarchy. 

Demons on Tar

"Road fear and Exam fear are the two fears I've never had and will never have" - so said a 16 year old Shilpa who was studious and raced town buses on her BSA Ladybird! 

I have strongly stood by my statement till date, well, literally till date!

This very evening, a motorbike screeching past, too close to the right of my vehicle and a not-so-pleasant experience of being sandwiched between a carefree push-cart vendor and a car whizzing along, left me with something like an electric shock in my heart.  Is it sane to call yourself fearless of a blind demon slashing away in all possible directions? 

Possibly, the speeding car that rammed my vehicle's front panel and left my circulation system short of a few hundred millilitres of blood (or whatever quantity is sufficient to soak a sandal and drip over), has made me more conscious and cautious on the road. 

My two-week bus travel post the accident made something of an early bird out of me and on resuming my two-wheeler ride to college, I found that it was actually possible for me to start earlier than (the usual) 8.30 a.m. to reach the 10 km-away college before 8.50 a.m.! Travelling in a relaxed mood, I have been able to observe my fellow road-commuters. A surmise that applies to a majority of them is this- An Absolute lack of a sense of coexistence! Eight out of ten people seem to possess a book of traffic rules that reads:

• Your own job is the most important! Get to it as quickly as possible; never bother about anything else.  
• You may start as late as you please; but ensure that you always reach your destination on time!
• You don't have to slow down at cuts or U-turns; the  moron driving straight ahead with no clue as to your sudden arrival in front of him shall pay for his ignorance.
• Jump the red signals; the recently installed cameras near traffic lights are actually for screening people for bike-stunt ads.
• The noble pedestrian has all rights to cross the road with no regard to the vehicles coming ahead; the road, after all, was built using his tax money!
• "Keep Speeding" is the mantra; "Keep Left" is outdated.
• Horns that sound like a pack of wolves' howling are the in-things.
• You may remove the silencer of your motorbikes, to draw attention to your sleek assembled bikes and your cool riding stunts.
• Helmets are for sissies who prefer safety (haha! what danger can ever befall a hero?!) and don't mind hair loss!! 
• You may even start your bike without a key (well, some new technology will crop up) but never ever start it without both your ears plugged to your I-Pod or Cellphone with its media-player belting out your favourite songs!  

There are definitely more of these and might be observed by yours truly in the days to come.

I admit that I used to be a very fast driver pre-feb 18,2011. But now my eyes are wide open to the road around me. I'd always believed that if I ever met with an accident on the road, it would be by my mistake. Alas! I was shown that there was atleast one guy who was a more careless driver than me. 

Does everyone need to pass through such an ordeal before he/she realizes what I have realized?!

Fear, may be uncalled for; Awareness, most definitely, is needed!

A Root Canal operation needed..

India is not new to scams. Power and money have an anti-gravitational tendency- they get to people's heads easily. But the recent spate of exposed corruptions is nothing short of an avalanche of stinking reality, breaking through this bubble of democratic freedom that we live in.

While the general feeling that prevails these days is frustration at all these, I'd rather feel happy that issues previously in the dark have come to the fore now. The more the scams unearthed, the better.Fear has been instilled in corrupt minds.
You can be dethroned in a jiffy even if you head Asia's largest integrated aluminium production firm. Black money in your pocket will reach out to stain your white collars, even if you had the highest judicial contacts or if you felt the landscape in Switzerland would beautifully camouflage it. Flout rules and just norms, favour your cronies in handing out spectrum or contracts for games or apartments (which are non-Eco-friendly by the way), and your next stop would be at the headquarters of the CBI (which is learning to stop being a ruling-party's-investigator). If you were a hypocrite sitting at the vigilance headquarters, you shall soon be exposed. You will be fined five years from now, if you currently manipulate stocks during IPOs. But if you are an Italian gun-deal middleman with compatriots who ghost-rule the country, you are safe at least for the time being.   
The backbone that supports the whole of the previous paragraph is the fourth estate, the common man's informer, the supposed-to-be-honest Press. But our Great Indian Democracy has proved its capability of managing to corrupt even this area, resulting in the "Paid News scandal" which was ironically aired by none other than the Press. Freedom is always prone to be misused. A journalist's job is to take the truth- to the people- as it is. To this extent, he has the freedom of speech and expression. Learning about the misuse of these, by those pursuing the only profession I have passionately adored, is painful.
However, we, as a nation, seem to have woken up to address the root cause of all troubles- the  now-so-familiar word "Corruption", in every domain. But how do we tackle this issue? We cannot be corruption-free tomorrow or the day-after. It is a deep-rooted evil. Let us start from the grassroots level. Mere Moral Science lessons don't help a bit. A sense of pride in being honest, a true feeling of integrity in upholding one's ethics and values sans yielding under any circumstance, the joy that results from giving one's best to one's job- all these will need to be instilled strongly.
Okay, I do sound like an idealist. But this is just the beginning of what is required to overcome the problems faced today. If these are unrealistic, then the calls to clean up the blotched democracy are, sadly, in vain.

WCTC!

"Organize the World Classical Tamil Conference"- the judge of an event in my college sprung a surprise on the finalists, sometime last September. With no clue whatsoever regarding the magnitude of the event, we started planning, discussing, drawing up lists and charts. It was fun!
But now as I see the city all decked up for the five-day fest, with people actually organizing it and working round the clock, I sense an overwhelming amount of skepticism all over. This is no fun event and those who execute the organizational plans are all but happy. The newspapers carry ads wishing the conference success and show pictures with smiling faces all over. Are the smiles genuine? Happiness is worthless if it is shown just because it is required of us. Look at the face of any of the several Policemen standing on duty in the scorching sun throughout the day, and you will know how much they enjoy working for and being a vital part of the conference.
Avinashi Road looks good (despite the long-forgotten and messed-up six-lane system). The traffic signals and streetlights are good; let's hope they last for quite a few years. The VOC Ground is as unrecognizably cool as obviously artificial and temporary. I haven't seen Codissia complex in person; its glittering photo in 'The Hindu' is attractive, but why does it remind me of the several hours of power cut (occasionally even 5 hours a day)we had to endure over these past few months??
While we were drawing up the list of dignitaries to be invited in that mock WCTC, Dr. Abdul Kalam was somewhere at the top. Whereas the actual organizers (who apparently know better than us) have rather invited The current President of India, whose knowledge of Tamil, I am ignorant of. Well, there do seem to be some heartening things like the arrival of several International Tamil scholars which shows how popular this language of ours is (atleast outside Tamilnadu).
The one most significant advantage of this WCTC is the employment (and hopefully a considerable remuneration) provided to hundreds of skilled and unskilled laborers, occupied with painting of walls, laying of roads, pavements, etc.
The Tamil anthem, though famous now due to its frequent playing almost everywhere, has failed to become an ear-worm for many.
Well, let us see. Skepticism, Fake enjoyment and mounting tension (on the organizers) apart, let us just hope that this event ends peacefully (successfully would be a hollow term, coming from me!) without any form of harm to any human life.
P.S: I am Absolutely happy with the conference for the sole reason of the miraculous nine-day break in the semester :)

Grumbling, Complaining, Cursing...call it whatever!

Load Shedding duration increased to 3 hours per day! Insufficient funds to obtain the required amount of electric power!
Why can't they cut down on the extravaganza allowances while some high profile politician visits the city? Is it needed to put up tens of thousands' worth of hoardings calling out- "Thalapathiye" "Idhaya Dheivamey" "thunai MUDHALVAREY" etc. each time the person described visits (the frequency of which has now become nearly once in 15 days due to the Tamil Conference) ?? And why on earth should the city resemble a brightly-lit and ostentatiously decorated Christmas Tree when the Chief Minister visits, while the poor tax-payers there swelter in the summer day's heat without electricity for fans and earnest students preparing for exams are deprived of lights during the night?
Oh the Weird Ways of the Wicked World!!

33 percent Reservation...Giant Leap for womankind??

Not really.
The women in power may well be the sari/salwar-clad mouthpieces of the actually powerful (read rich/influential) ones in the field of politics. There may actually be deserving men in a constituency reserved for women. Generalizations always fail with certainty when it comes to characterizing men or women as belonging to the gender that has better administrative skills. There are extremes (morons/mighty managers) as well as moderate ones in both genders and the intelligence or ability is purely a subjective matter.
People all aound are harping about the so-called upliftment of women, just because a bill allowing one-third of the seats in the Parliament to be occupied by women was successfully tabled in the Rajya Sabha. How on earth does this uplift "women" as a whole?? Well, other than Sushma Swaraj and Brinda Karat hugging each other, I do not see any great positive development that this bill might spawn.
Does this thing about upliftment mean that only women MPs will work for the betterment of women in the country?
Or maybe, the very presence of some women in the Parliament is considered to be some kind of a success. I remember reading an article about the Attendance of MPs in the Rajya Sabha prior to the Elections in May'09. The women (mostly from the cine field, who happen to get in easily) had extremely poor attendance and a very poor questioning record.
As an Indian Citizen, I would demand that the human being representing me in the Houses of the Parliament or the Legislative Assembly is efficient and takes proper measures to see to that the represented area progresses in all fields and copes up with dynamically arising problems. I don't give a damn about my representative being a man or a woman, as long as the person is capable.
"BJP-CPI supporting Cong in this Bill" might well be an act of garnering popularity (or better still, avoiding ill-reputation by opposing it). For, after all, we are supposedly a nation that "respects" women (against whom, incidentally, most crimes in the country are committed) and speaking well of the Bill (that "uplifts" the noble gender) in public will add to the respectability of the Party.

The People I Loathe on the Road

This is a post that has been in my mind for quite a long time. I was reminded of it just as I was driving this evening.

1. The first kind poses a potential risk to every two-wheeler rider (more importantly to one sans a helmet) who has to stop at traffic signals next to buses. The poor rider can anytime become the target of an inadvertent game of Hit-the-Spitoon by the passengers in the six-wheeler.
   
2. This is a more dangerous lot. The Murderers, I would call them. "If you want to kill yourself filling your lungs with nicotine, then go do it alone. Why try to kill us too?" is what I feel like shouting at them, especially in public places like Bus Stops. There have been many instances when I've woken up bright and left for college with a fresh mind, to only end up holding my breath or taking in the foul smell in the Bus stop early in the morning. Implementation of the 'Ban on Smoking in Public Places'? My foot.
   
3. This lot, resembles the previous one in its proposed threats. But the people here mostly do not harm themselves more than the riders behind them. Yes, these are the people who don't bother with the emission control norms for two-wheelers. I wouldn't have mentioned them had I not been afflicted with cough for over a month after an instance of having to wait at a signal just behind a dragon in a motorbike's form for about 100 seconds. The most irritating part came when the guy driving the contraption turned and gave a meek grin at all of us, the sufferers behind. Since then, I have conscientiously started checking my own scooter's emission (though Appa leaves no room for doubt there, normally).
   

So there we go! If I find more kind of people to hate, I shall update this list.

The "Soft" Power

A party that swept the polls with a vast majority just half a year back now faces deposition from its very own stronghold of votes. Parties today seem to be making a habit of buckling under pressure from regional elements. Be it the BJP which gave in to the demand of the Reddy brothers, albeit not wholeheartedly, or the ruling Congress which has lost its sheen after declaring that a separate Telangana state would be formed, money, power and influence are ruling over rationalism, secularism and unity of the nation as a whole. If the nation is secular, inclusive and does not tolerate regional/caste-based politics, the Shiv Sena should have been banned long ago and the MNS should have been nipped at the bud by a strong ban after the outrageous attack on innocent Railway Employment Applicants.
India is not as strong as she should be. A soft power, it sure is. Quoting Mr. Shashi Tharoor's wonderful speech at TED'09, India as a soft power can attract other nations with its values, ethics and technologically strong youth power. But it is too soft for its own well being. The vibrations of Mr.Chidambaram's microphone (after his declaration of the intention of forming a separate Telengana region) would have hardly died down before the Gorkhas started demanding a separate Gorkhaland. If this is satisfied too, then our Marathi Manoos will start fasting-unto-death. Then maybe Mr. Karunanidhi will fast (with three air-coolers focussed on him, lying in a comfortable bed, in a shaded spot) approximately between breakfast and lunch times one fine day, asking for a Tamil State where only Tamil is taught to all the commoners' children(while the children from rich and powerful families are sent abroad to study at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard or Yale).
And here comes the worst part of this separation fiasco. The kids will then have a lot more states with their capitals to be remembered, their climatic variations and agricultural patterns to be studied in detail, in Geography! I pity my one-year old nephew who is happily dismantling things and uttering nonsensical words without any clue as to how these images he sees in the TV are going to make him carry a heavier Geography book in future.

The Perfect Government- Non-Existent.

It has been 17 years since the Babri Masjid demolition and we now know for sure what we knew already, thanks to Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan. The key leaders of the BJP and RSS have been indicted for inciting the flame of communal violence which then spread throughout the nation which, according to the Constitution and our school Civics textbooks, is secular. We cringe when we think back to the time when the persons, who face criminal charges now, had been elected by us to rule the country for 5 years at the Centre. We are happy that the BJP was not able to win the latest Lok Sabha elections.
While all this is true, also equally veracious is the fact that the party which is ruling the nation currently is nowhere near being described as honest and righteous. A quarter of a century ago, the nation witnessed the largest ever Genocide since Independence. The assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards (who were allegedly enraged at her having triggered a rampage at their holy shrine), did not in any way call for a massacre of all Sikhs in India. The incident is and will for ever be a horrible scar on any secular face that the Congress tries to put up. Jagdish Tytler may have been barred from contesting the polls and a Sikh may have been appointed the Prime Minister, but these will do nothing to replace the lost loved ones from the many Sikh families, run and brought up by a single parent (mother), if any, in most cases.
This brings to mind the discussion of the possible stability and goodness of a government that could probably have been formed by the recently created (and soon disoriented) Third Front. That event can only be described by a Poisson Distribution of probability, for it was known to be very much impossible right from the very beginning. Well, assuming that the impossible had somehow occurred, there would have been a certain consequence- the rapid breaking up of the disparate parties in the coalition.
I don't even want to discuss the comical "Fourth Front" formed by Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan! Another Poisson must be born to invent a probability distribution for such an occurrence!
So, this brings me to the title of this post- a perfect government. Does such a thing ever exist?
Mani Ratnam may have portrayed youth entering the Parliament to bring in reforms and a breath of fresh air in 'Ayutha Ezhuthu'/'Yuva'. But I feel that there is a significance in the movie ending even as the young guys enter the Parliament after being elected. There is no assurance of a honest government even then. After all, human beings do tend to get corrupted by the attraction of money and power. Even if one single person tries to be proper, the environment simply doesn't let him/her to be so. Movies like 'Mudhalvan' can only be movies. Not reality.
Asking for an impeccable governance and honest rulers (though this might not be a valid generalization, I take the liberty of considering a majority who are not) or claiming to be able to provide one is pure Hypocrisy! Let's avoid it and try to be pragmatic and elect whichever government provides us an optimum amount of benefits, after all the trade-offs involved.

This is what happens if Goons are Elected into the Assembly.

The Festival of Sound and Smoke...

Here they come- again.

To these I’m used.

Acts of ingratitude-

May I call them?

I shower them

With the purest of waters;

Choking smoke they return.

My children they are!

My duty it is- to cover them,

To protect them and

Not expect returns.

But, warn them, I must,

For my tunic won’t last long

Over their smug heads.

Wear and tear- have reached

This poor old covering-

The only one I have and offer-

They call it Ozone.

Time is running out.

Celebrating their way

To the End,

Some reach early via

The gruesome route of mishaps;

The rest take the slow route.

Will realization dawn soon?

Where are We?

A sadhu immolates himself to attain eternal bliss or some such thing in the hands of the Holy Lord.. A group of Indian Policemen, the so-called Government Servants and Commoners' Friends, sit with folded hands and piously watch the gross act!! One policeman even takes a pic of the burnt body like one would take the pic of an unforgettable treasured scene with his mobile.. A boy who looked like he should have been in school studying or playing with friends vigorously plays the drum-like instrument after the sadhu's death..
And we call ourselves A Developing Nation!
Kudos to the MP Police force for making our country "Proud"!!!

What Matters and What Doesn't...

Mount Everest can be put to shame easily by the heights reached by the peaks created out of wayward issues by the very respectable Indian Media. There seems to be no limit on what they conduct debates on - "What's your take on Tharoor's tweet?" is the current topper, with all channels flashing ads asking people to voice their opinions on the issue. Then there is this bunch of people clad in formals, with some title or the other attached to their names discussing the issue with such fervency that it seems like no other work can go on in the nation unless a solution is found. Political debates should be responsibly based on issues that actually affect the countrymen and should aim at finding sensible solutions to them. Whether Tharoor has called the commoners "cattle" (which by the way, he did not mean to) or not is not going to affect us in any way. When there are so many pressing problems all around us, why waste valuable time blowing up trivial issues. Infact there was even one channel flashing "Are we making a big issue of of this?" and making a big issue out of even that. Come such an occasion and the leaders from the opposition parties are ready to come out with wonderful statements affirming their purity and describing how uncouth the ruling party is.
Visual media is undoubtedly the most effective means of reaching out to the people- a fact that was proved recently by the shock-induced deaths of commoners after viewing news reports of YSR's tragic death. The people who wield such a great influence on the masses should be more responsible about how they use the power.
Forget tweets. Think development and progress. Show us how efficient the policies of the government are. Point out the loop-holes. Expose corruption. Be the media for the masses to know and to be known and heard.

Just Hang Kasab??

As i was switching through the mountain-out-of-mole-hill-makers (read the Indian English news channels) yesterday, I came across the flashing headline with which I have titled this post. There were brief interviews of the close relatives of the slain ATS chief Mr. Karkare and the Inspector Mr. Salaskar, in which the subjects demanded for immediate imposition of the death sentence on the lone surviving accused, Ajmal Kasab, on the ground that they were simply fed up with the prolonging investigations and trials. Well, it is true that the Mumbai tragedy occurred three- quarters of an year ago and the trials are still going on with Kasab having pleaded guilty only recently. His reported actions in the court like laughing at the judge and the prosecutor and demanding for the provision of amenities like newspapers, specific brands of toothpaste and the like in the jail, have irked and frustrated every rational Indian soul, including mine.

But the demand for the immediate hanging of Kasab is an irrational one, put forth on an angry and impatient impulse. He is a source of valuable evidence against the LeT or whichever mad cult he belongs to and he can simply not be executed without exploiting his knowledge of the entire base and operations of the deadly terrorists who threaten World Peace. He may not reveal the truth at the first instance and his contradictory stories may irritate us, but ultimately he happens to be just another 20-something old lad who cannot hold back things for long and will come out with everything regarding the operation, motives and plans of action of his gang.

Mulling over the last adjective I have used for him, I happen to feel a certain sympathy for the deadly, arrogant killer. He is probably elder to me by a few years- five at the maximum. Why has this young man evolved to be this kind of a monster and not a harmless well-disposed individual like millions of people who are his age? The answer is simple. He grew up in such an environment where these terrorist activities were (and are) not considered immoral. All teenagers naturally feel the need to be recognized and popular among their peers. While we, the gifted ones, grow up in an environment that is conducive to our positive development, like the gaining of the much yearned-for popularity by excelling in academics and personality-developing co- and extra-curricular activities, all that Kasab could do to be the most popular guy in his gang was to be a part of the terrorist group which he had been taught to hold in reverence. It might not have occurred to his brainwashed self that such purported "holy cleansings" (one of the euphemisms they employ for massacre) are, in actuality, against the interests of mankind which the factions plan to then protect with the imposition of their short-sighted and murky laws opposing the march towards a liberal and developed world. His is the case of a virtually blind boy who never knew how light looked as he was born and brought up in darkness.

Still, the angry Indians will not rest until the young lad is killed, for, in his death, they will see their revenge taken upon terrorism. I would definitely not be unhappy to see the monster in him dead, but that must wait until the monster comes out with all the ugly facts of its origination and growth.

First Women For Women First??

These are seemingly good times for the women in India. At least for the influential ones. We have, now in power, our First Woman President and our First Woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha. There are 59 women MPs (highest since Independence) in the current Lok Sabha, among which 17 are under 40 years. The statistics make me momentarily cheer.
But then, one of the most common questions in GDs and debates comes to my mind- Are Women better Managers/Leaders than Men?
I have loathed this question ever since I heard it first because of the simple reason that neither I, nor can anyone answer it without erring at some point or the other. It is a totally subjective issue and both sides of the debate have points in abundance to discuss and they may have to end up with a no-conclusion.
The mere presence of a large number of women should not be something for us to celebrate. Their proper execution of their duty to the country should be of greater concern.

Speaking of the common women, it must be said that they have started coming out of their self-cum-society-imposed cocoon of the so-called modesty and staying behind the veil and under a man's protection. But "have started" implies that "have achieved liberty" is still a far cry.
Even in the purported Fashion+Finance Capital of India, Mumbai, where I saw women being more outgoing and free-minded, there always lurked a sense of fear at the very bottom of each of their hearts. The reason can be found by skimming the "Times Of India" on any day. There can almost never fail to be a report of some case of kidnapping or harassment or even murder of members of the fairer sex, followed by an account of how the police nabbed the culprit successfully. Nabbing the culprits and bringing them to justice is another case. Preventing the crimes is far more important. A jail term awarded to an offender will not undo the wrong done to the hapless victims.
Awareness and Prevention is definitely on the agenda of grown-up women, for many of them have learnt self-protection techniques to avoid harm. But what about the children?? In the past one month that I spent there, I came across reports of several minor girls being attacked and one 8 year old kid was even found murdered. These incidents are those that wrung my heart.
A million "Slum Dog Millionaire"s may reveal the dirty underbelly of India. We will react strongly to each of them, defending our Mother Land. But what happens after the noise dies down? The lives of almost all Indians goes on unchanged and the only probable people to come across positive changes are the ones who got to play themselves on screen.

India is not a discriminative country. It is the mindset of a percentage of the population that is to be changed. With all these "First Woman" someones in the fore, all we can do is to hope that they change the bigger picture while we the commoners, should try to be the change we desire to see and spread courage and determination in the minds of the small circle of the girls and the women we know.

An Ice-breaker or Life-breaker ?

It was near midnight. That day's newspaper lay on my table. Some knowledge on what's going on in the world would be good for my mind before it dozes off, I decided. I opened a page at random and was drawn to a picture and the related article.
It was the report of the death of Aman Kachroo, a first year student of medicine. He was beaten to death under the name of ragging by his seniors in college.
"I was shocked!" would be an understatement.
I just could not understand why people of roughly the same age group as mine would want to beat a boy to death just because of his Kashmiri origins or whatsoever.
Ragging was meant to be an ice-breaker between the freshers and their seniors so that the latter group can then guide the former with regard to several aspects ranging from studies to arranging Industrial Visits ( the professional name for excursions in college :) ) But not many senior or junior students understand this. The seniors feel that ragging is a way of establishing their superiority over the new flock of students and the juniors in turn are scared to death when they see the seniors and they sweat from head to toe; they even shiver at times! My only question to these is: What's wrong in treating your junior as your equal?
People may find this queer but I never feared ragging when I entered college. In fact, once during the first few weeks of college life, I told one of my school teachers that college is boring because I didn't get ragged and actually one senior told me that she wouldn't even speak with me during the first year, for fear of being seen in conversation with a fresher, which amounted to ragging in the eyes of the staff members. Even this attitude made me very uncomfortable, for I wanted to move with them, as a friend, not to be alienated like an untouchable. But soon things got alright and we had a great interaction session (though we were almost ready to receive our own juniors by then :) )
The concept of ragging, if taken in the right sense, will be a welcome one among the students. But the main problem that makes ragging a negative issue is that the students, in their late teens, do not realise it when they cross the limits and end up inflicting torture on their juniors. They cannot be taught how to rag by a set of professionals, of course!! Most of these fatal results like in Kachroo's case occur because of the impression the society leaves on the young minds. They see the adults fighting for religion- and they too torture those belonging to the opposite religion/race. Any boy/girl brought up in a child-friendly environment will be a happy and level-headed adult who knows his/her limits. No young man or woman of twenty would want another dead, unless he/she belongs to one of those damned terrorist organisations. Right now, Kachroo's torturers would be feeling a remorse that is of a magnitude greater than any pleasure they could have derived by torturing the kid.
Ultimately, the responsibility falls on the society and the parents to see to that their children grow into normal adults. The colleges can initiate the interaction themselves. Things that are banned will only be executed with utmost enthusiasm (which does amount to brutality in this case ). So do not ban ragging! Instead, have it done, but under strict guidelines so that the limits cannot be exceeded.
The ultimate aim is the formation of a strong bond of friendship. It can be established sans torture, I say, out of personal experience.

Another Issue of Religion??

Terror has become synonymous with religion, in all aspects. By religion's terror links, I do not mean only the saffron versus green crescent fracas which has been on since before I was born. The latest religion of the world has been struck by terror. Cricket- the universal religion- or so it has been claimed to be by many- took a hit from gun-men's bullets- at the place which used to be part of our Motherland a six odd decades ago.
The facts of the matter, I need not present, for there are approximately 5 to 6 news channels which will air, 24X7 at least for the next couple of weeks, the video grabs of the terrorists shooting out at the Srilankan team which was touring Pakistan, with excited journalists in the foreground narrating the happenings and posing questions like " Was this a failed abduction plan?", "Will all the gunmen be caught?" never omitting the newly evolved punch - "SMS your comments to ------ ".
First of all, I was dumbstruck when I saw those videos of men (who must not have seen life before 1980 at the least) shooting freely at the van, hurting many, killing half a dozen cops and two civilians, while they themselves got away scot-free, on MOTORBIKES!! Wow!! What a protective nation Pakistan is, of its fearless citizens like these gun-wielding men!
The cricket grounds of Pakistan will not meet foreign shoes' soles for the next couple of years at the least. Well, this should not bother those brave youngsters, should it? After all, they have put a temporary stop to the development of a mere game that was threatening to be a universal religion. And no religion other than their own one should flourish, should it??

Unwelcome Holiday

"All colleges in Tamilnadu closed for an indefinite period. Hostelers forced to vacate in a hurry."

The news flashing on the TV screen affected me in a way that was very much different from how it affected most students all over the state. Many were happy to be away from college with its interminable classes, labs where the outputs have to be conjured and calculated rather than observed before jotting them down and the most tiring phase of getting the observation signed by the staff members after a long wait in front of their cabins or a long search involving a walk around the department for a minimum of four times in search of the respected person in need.

Well, frustrating though all this may seem to be, I'd rather endure them all instead of sitting at home, supposedly for a cause that, in a round-about way, supports terrorism. And the way the hostelers were rushed home, as though they would grow into violent chaos-creating specimens if left to stay for some more time!! Let alone the Engineering students, for I am not partial to that clan, no student who has a proper thinking head on his/her shoulders would ever get involved in riots and bring his/her future career to an abrupt standstill.

The simple outcome of this is that the normal lives of students are interrupted.

Classes cancelled: sounds good to the ear of any student. But what if compensation classes are held in the following weekends??!!

Culturals becoming a failure: this is that time of the year when most colleges, including mine, have arranged for technical and non technical inter-collegiate events. If hostelers who would form a main part of the visiting students as well as the organisers from our host side are not there, what would happen of the arrangements, plans and dreams of the entire college which takes pride in hosting such grand events. Events can be postponed to our convenience, at the maximum. But what of the video conferences and the workshops?? The dignitaries and the organisations do not have all the time in the world to spend with us alone!

Dear student friends who are reading this, I am not a pessimist out to destroy and crunch every bit of hope and good feelings of an unexpected holiday and time to spend with friends and family at leisure. Just look at what we gain of this act- a big NOTHING, unless you really want to take into account the fact that we'd be labelled as hot-blooded youth who can't tolerate the defeat of terrorists who take shelter behind innocent civilians in a neighbouring country. It is a well-known fact that the civilians of SriLanka were given time to leave the targeted place by the army. So, in the wreckage that ensues, if we find that any innocent civilian has been killed, it would be only due to the fact that he was used as a shield by the very people who claim to be fighting for his freedom.

Terrorists are freedom fighters: sounds like a good enough oxymoron to me.

People say that one man's freedom fighters are another's terrorists. But in the case of the SriLankan Tamil civilians, it is not so. For, more civilians are being killed by their alleged freedom fighters more than by the army.

So, in this peculiar case, we do know that the tigers are true terrorists to almost the entire world. But think as I might, I cannot figure out whose true freedom fighters they are!!

Ok... In any case that the respected reader is a believer of the tamil eelam, I have a question for you.. If I believe in a cause or an organisation, I will always defend it by reproaching its abusers, saying that what they tell are plain lies and probably even substantiate my stand. Won't the worst-ever approach to defend a cause that has been exposed and found to be wrong, be to ask the offender not to lift the curtains on the unpleasant truth?? Well, the honourable defenders of the eelam have done just that. A few months back, they had publicly written

தமிழ் நாட்டில் பிழைப்பு நடத்திக் கொண்டு தமிழர்களை காட்டிக் கொடுக்காதே!!

addressing a bold journalist and a newspaper editor.. Well, their own last two words highlight their guilt. No other offence or exposure is needed.