Accepting change.

It all started when the lanky kid with an accent sat there, in the corner of the class rather lonely waiting to make friends. He was the one who approached us and asked he could sit with us because he was unable to concentrate sitting in the last bench. Willingly we let him sit with us. From just two we had become a three member family that is today a six member one :)

Soon as my friendship with the accent kid grew I began to realize that he was a different person. Later one by one all his hidden stories about how socially awkward he was began to flow out. At the same time I began having stupid fights with a long time best friend and we used to argue for hours on who had changed and who hadn't. Our friendship ended with a big bitter fight and ever since I've been alone, trying to understand if I was really the one who had changed.

He told us that he was planning to leave our college because he wasn't able to cope up with the sudden change in syllabus and everything. He had come from the 'IG' board after tenth. Its then when I slowly rethought the story did I realize that I was indeed the one who had changed. It took me one person and his different attitude of being able to accept change to live with fact that I had changed.

Change is a very difficult thing to accept and it can sometimes even push people into depression. I am saying that he was able to accept the change in him because he was different person when he studied in his previous school. He was able to change and make new friends and today has many good ones and some well wishers too.

Thank you so much for teaching me to cope with this reality of life and I hope you have a very happy birthday Varun !!

Dear Paul Uncle,

So it all started when I went for a heritage walk some time in August last year when I was in tenth. I used to study in Deens Academy back then and really wanted to know more about the Anglo Indian land I had been studying on for more than five years.

After many attempts of puppy dog faces and other buttering my parents finally agreed to let me go for it. In no time I was there at the Whitefield Church waiting for it to start. I had had no idea that walk was going to introduce some one so amazing to me !

During the walk which was pretty sober till then we were taken to the oldest house on Whitefield which was built based on the original plane of Mr.White the architect behind the whole original plan of Whitefield. That house was now owned by a Mr.Paul and his mother.

The house was so beautiful that I had gone gaga over the house and its authentically designed to garden within minutes of entering the short green-white gate. The garden had about 10 different orchid plants scattered here and there. Trust me when I tell you it was love at first sight for me when I first saw them. I immediately and extremely shamelessly asked Aunty if I could borrow a few and she very willingly gave two pretty plants to me. Aunty told me one would grow and the other one was a stubborn one and had very few chances of survival.

A year had passed by, my tenth finals got over. I was in 11th garde and now I was studying in CMR National PU College, Ekay campus. A few days ago I was to attend a five day crash course in French near the house I had visited so I thought of dropping by to return a pending favor.

The plant that was supposed to grow hadn't grown and the one that wasn't bad grown and was very healthy. I had assumed that I had a story and some plants to share so I visited Uncle and Aunty. Through out the course of learning French I went to their house everyday to barter different orchid plants that were all from different parts of the world.

On the third day, when u went early with a freidn who was more than happy to accompany me Paul Uncle asked us if we wanted to see his latest development on a project he was on.

Willingly we both accepted the offer and followed him. He lead us to his room where on an antique table laid his work. Believe it or not it was a computer for the blind that he has invented. We were so shocked and awestruck to find out that the all-so-humble Paul Uncle was an inventor and this time he had invented something that has the potential to change the lives of millions of blind people living amongst us.

I returned home that day a shocked person  because from the time I was four I had always wanted to be an inventor like Dexter or Newton. Forget being an inventor I was dying to at least meet an inventor and here I was talking to one and trading plants with from the past four days. He then told us that he had given a TEDX talk in Vellore last year which was available on YouTube. (Search for Paul  D'souza Tedx talk VIT Vellore to watch it on YouTube)

After watching the talk I figured uncle was much more than an inventor. He was a complete human who was humble, considerate and kind. My whole perspective on being a better human changed after meeting him. I realised being considerate cab sometimes help change lives and being humble no matter what will change the way people think about you once they find out who you are and what good you have been doing.

I had made my mind that no matter who I was going to be in the future , humility will be a compulsory part of me which was no matter what never going to leave me.

Dear Paul Uncle,

Thank you Paul Uncle for being so kind and inspiring. Thank you !!

Until then happy reading dear silent reader !!

Happy Diwali folks !!!

Hey guys,

I'm back and I have something sad and scary in mind that I wanted to share with y'all.

No humans were harmed during the production of this article. Any resemblance to any human, living or dead, is purely intentional.

So I am a street puppy and I live a happy life with random people who live near me feeding me lots of milk and they always have a treat for me up their sleeve. But yesterday night was scary .... very scary !!! I went out of my pretty drainage house in the evening to hear bomb blast and trust me I didn't know where to go ... as soon as began to run for my life I heard a few more blasts. I feel in a pit and thanks to a kind dog lover I am still alive today. If it wasn't for him I would have died due to the sound and those weird lights up in the sky were as scary as  any nightmare would be.

That was the story of a cute puppy called Tuffy that my neighbor adopted last Diwali. He is one year old now and looking back at his state last year this year, I am determined this year to save other poor street dogs like Tuffy who suffer every year due to the noise and pollution we create during Diwali by bursting crackers. Its kind of meaning less to burst a hand full of chemicals, packed in paper by lighting fire to it. If it brings happiness burst a few flowerpots but please don't burst those noisy bombs.

I have vowed this Diwali not to burst any of those noisy bombs that pollute our pretty environment. One act of random kindness (ARK) can save many harmless lives this festive season. I hope this makes you think about taking this vow and saving many lives.

I would like to share the link of another blog that I just simply loved reading http://drawmycamera.blogspot.in/?m=1  ....  the chief author is Tirthika Shah who is a classmate and well wisher of mine !! i would like to wish you all a very happy and safe thoughtful Diwali !!!!

You can choose to be Happy

Recently, when I was going through some of the newspaper clippings from my collection, I came across this very thoughtful article. It basically revolved around the topic 'you can choose to be happy'. 

According to me happiness is joy that can be found by sparing some time everyday in thinking about what or who made your day. It could be a gesture or a treat from a friend. Happiness is a form of satisfaction that you can make yours by thinking positive. Happiness can also be a product of hope. Happiness has many definitions which differ from person to person. .

We can choose to be happy because life is a bed of  beautiful roses but the rose plants have sharp thorns. If Shah Rukh Khan is where he is today, it is because of his hard work and hope. This rule applies to everybody ... it doesn't matter if  they are poor or rich. Life will always be a yin-yan situation, where when something stupendous happens, there will be something sad to balance it out. The decision lies in our hand to find the positives of the situation and keep our hope high and move on or we can feel bad about the negatives and change the way we think.

We can choose to be happy and lead different lives or we can crib over the imperfections of the world and the latter, certainly is not going to lead us anywhere. If you have had the time to read this article, you can always spare some time for yourself and the produce, I assure you the will be pure happiness. happiness will always lie in our minds, it is up to us to exploit it and live life to the fullest !

It is in your moments of peace/decision that your future lives in !   

Is college education in India not world class?

An article telling the truth about : Is college education in India not world class? (written by Harshvardhan)

Before saying whether college education in India is world class or not, I would like to tell about a few global personalities. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Software major Microsoft graduated from MIT in India. So did the new CEO of Nokia. Continuing the list Narayan Murthy(Infosys founder), Azim Premji(Wipro founder), Dr.Devishetty (leading Cardiac surgeon), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan(Chemistry Nobel Prize winner), Nithin Nohria (Harvard Dean) all had most of their college education in India. Barack Obama recently said in a speech that American students will have to work harder otherwise they would be overtaken by Indian students. Hence telling that College education in India is not world class one will be belittling ourselves in front of others.

The problem with College education in India is not only that of Quality. IISC is one among the top 20 universities in the world.4 IIT's figure among the top 100 colleges in the world.3 IIM's are among the top 20 management institutes in the world. Quality is present but only at very few places like the ones mentioned above and quality of intake into them are drastically low when compared to our college going youth.1 IISC,13 IIM's, handful of IIT's, NIT's, AIIMS, MIT, etc produce quality students but they cater to not even 1% of students. For such a large nation like ours, these are just not enough. Creating such institutes is not easy because we lack Infrastructural capabilities and there is shortage of Teachers, Professors and lecturers.

Moreover College education system in India is oriented more towards marks and grades than on knowledge. This leads to superficial knowledge. A more industry oriented and knowledge oriented education system will produce quality youth for the country. This requires a major transformation of our Education system. Industry and Private sector will have to take a more active part in the education system to accomplish this transformation because they will ultimately be benefitted with quality students to hire from. Tie-up with global varsities for bringing their branches to India can solve part of the problem.

We should feel sorry to see scores and scores of Engineers and Doctors opting for GRE, GMAT and other competitive exams to pursue their higher education abroad. Most of them end up working and settling there leading to Brain drain. It would be unfair to blame them completely for this because the other country offered them better opportunities to grow. Instead we will have to strengthen our college education system to reverse this trend.

Good colleges are present only in few cities. Effort will have to be made to provide rural students good colleges. Presently India has a very large share of youth. We have to address all their educational requirements.

Other countries like China spend a significant percentage of their GDP on higher education. India lags behind them in spending on higher education. This can be attributed to the focus mainly given to poverty alleviation, improvement of literacy rate, primary education, etc but the Government will have to find a balance between these spendings. Most of the students are not able to excel in college because of their poor school training. Hence focus should also be on Primary and High school education as it is a prerequisite for college education. Nevertheless utmost importance should be given to College education because only better graduates can shape a bright future for India.

Every government has tried to increase the quality and scale of college education but whatever has been done is just not enough for a fast growing nation like ours. At a time when India wants to dominate the global scene, it needs highly qualified and competent people. This is possible only by world class quality education on a large scale. Overnight one cannot expect drastic changes to happen but sustained efforts over a few years with the help of the Government, private sector and public will definitely take our nation to never before seen heights.

Money Madness- D.H. Lawrence

This is one wonderful poem that is a part of our PU textbook and it has a very deep,satisfactory and amazing meaning which may be the answer to all the social evils happening around us(excluding rape) ...

So read ,interpret and also read an interpretation :) !!

The Poem-

Money is our madness, our vast collective madness.

And of course , if the multitude is mad
The individual carries his own grain of insanity around with him.
I doubt if any man living hands out a pound note without a pang;
And a real tremor , if he hands out a ten-pound note.
We quail, money makes us quail .
It has got us down , we grovel before it in strange terror .
And no wonder, for money has a fearful cruel power among men .

But it is not money we are terrified of ,
it is the collective money - madness of mankind.
For mankind says with one voice : How much is he worth ?
Has he no money ? Then let him eat dirt , and go cold -

And if I have no money , they will give me a little bread ,
So I do not die,
but they will make me eat dirt for it .
I shall have to eat dirt , I shall have to eat dirt
if I have no money

It is that I am afraid of .
And that fear can become a delirium .
It is fear of my money-mad fellow-man.

We must have some money
To save us from eating dirt .

And this is wrong.

Bread should be free ,
shelter should be free ,
fire should be free
to all and anybody , all and anybody , all over the world.

We must regain our sanity about money
before we start killing one another about it .
It's one thing or the other.

Summary-

“Money Madness” by D.H. Lawrence is a critical evaluation of the rush after affluences that is visible all around us in this Modern Day World. Money has become a powerful player in societies of today and holds more importance than anything else in the modern day lifestyle. The poet, through his pen, has tried to exemplify this situation and present the social and moral degradation that such madness for a thing so materialistic renders.

The poet says that wherever we look there is madness for money; infact money can be termed as a metaphor for the word madness. And this madness is not on small or individualistic levels; it is the madness of the multitude, in numbers unimaginable and at levels incredible. And since the multitude as a whole is mad, so every person in this world carries his share of this madness-- his share of this insane race after money. The poet doubts that there exists a human in this world who hands out a pound note to someone without feeling a pang at heart. No matter how  noble he may feel while giving away that note, his heart always wishes if only he could do all that good without having to take out a note from his own pocket. And when that note turns to a ten-pound note, we experience real tremors within us. We tremble from inside while giving away that note, as if we have been robbed. Money makes us kneel infront of itself. It makes us fearful, and a sense of apprehension and stress grips us as we try to overcome a loss as materialistic and small as ten-pounds. It has an exaggerating power to influence our life.

But in the broader sense, it is not the money that we terrified of. But it is the madness that mankind shows for it-- the multitude madness-- that gives money such an undeserved status in the society of today. And from here arises the feeling that money is all that matters today; it means peace, of body and of mind. Every time the society sees the man, no one cares for his moral values and behavior. All that decides his social status is that how much is he worth? If he has no money, then he well deserves all the guilt, criticism and blame that comes with poverty. Let him go cold, says the society.

The poet goes on to say that if one has no money, the World would give him little money, only enough to perhaps buy a piece of bread, in the name of humanity. But even this small offering doesn’t come for free. He has to eat dirt to get it, suffering through pains unheard and criticisms unparalleled. The poet says it is this pitiful and inhumane situation that he is afraid of. He fears that such madness for money might result in the world going completely insane. It is this fear of money-mad fellow-men going into a state of delirium that resides within him.

If we are to save ourselves from humiliations, criticism, guilt, and blames in this modern day world, we must have money. Because money parallels power. And the poet strongly criticizes such a morally and socially degraded state of the Modern day society. He proclaims that bread, shelter, and fire should be free, to anybody and everybody all over the world.  We must regain our sanity when it comes to money. We must replace our madness with logic. Otherwise soon enough we will start killing one another for the sake of money. It is either one way or the other.

Rs. 21,305 crore set aside for education sector - The Hindu

Rs. 21,305 crore set aside for education sector - The Hindu