Tuesday, May 30, 2006

I saw it today.

I have heard about it a million times from friends and relatives and seen it a million times in TV or movies. But somehow there was still that innate belief that chennai city's finest could not be bribed. Naive, you say! Yes, it was! But there was still that little kernel of hope in me that all those people were wrong.

I was coming down the road today when this traffic inspector stopped a lorry. It was not violating any traffic laws as far as I could see. Anyways the inspector asked the lorry to stop and harrassed the guys inside for sometime and when the driver pulled out some money... I was naively waiting for him to scream or do something for attempting to bribe a city official so publicly. Instead he got the money from the driver and sent them along their merry way.


Hmm! felt like a child being told there is no santa claus or tooth fairy ..:-(

Saturday, May 27, 2006

All work and no play...


Do you know that over 200 kids kill themselves in India every year during the month of may?
The amount of pressure these children are in, are amazing to say the least, and 90% of the pressure is from their parents. The parents want their children to be such all rounders that the children have no time to enjoy their childhood.
Other than school, they are forced to attend tuitions, music, dance, instruments, painting classes. No time in between all this to play.
Infact I know of parents who do not let their children to even boot their computer, because they do the ultimate sin of playing games in the computer or listening to music. These kids are not allowed to do anything that may deviate them from their studies. They are puppets in the hands of the parents who have already charted their life and that is the only timetable they ever want to see their children follow.
Some of these children are not even in their 10th or 12th. Even imagining these kids in their higher classes makes me squirm.

I know parents want to give their children the best of futures and with the reservation the comptetion is very high. But not at the cost of their present. If children are not allowed to enjoy their innocence and childhood now, of what use is it to have a bright empty future? Don't they remember their own free and happy childhood?

This kind of pressure is not only harmful to the children, but they might grow up with almost no exposure to the outside world, and might even get repressed and have mental problems later in their life.

When I asked one mother why she does not let her daughter play, the mom very proudly told me, that her daughter not only plays but plays well too. Infact she had got prizes in long jump. Yes! Good for her! But what about playing hop scotch with her friends or oh! i don't know, playing pranks and stuff like that? The mom was seriously shocked that I could suggest something like that.. she was like "how can I allow her to waste time like that, she should be studying in that time... she will be in her 10th class soon and has to study hard to be an engineer". When I asked the daughter what she wanted to do, she gave me a listless smile and said "I want to be a doctor" only to have her mom pounce on her and tell her that there was no way she was becoming a doctor.

My heart goes out for such children. When will these people understand that exams are not the be all end all of life. Getting a little less score does not make their children any less. Please understand that there is more to life. Even without parental pressure, the kids are already weighed down under the heavy mettle of peer pressure and competition.

Its also unfortunate that the whole nation's educational system places such high importance to exams, leaving the chidren no other recourse.

I cannot help but feel grateful to my parents. I never had to face this kind of pressure. My 10th score was not the best on earth but my parents were still proud of me. They knew that when the time came I would make my life to my satisfaction and I knew I could always depend on their support for what ever I decide.

Education is a delight, something to be savoured. Children have a right to enjoy it, rather than have it stuffed down their gullet

All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy! Please allow Jack to play too, mom and dad!

Monday, May 22, 2006

To you gals!

The story starts 18-20 years back when three little girls joined the same school. They played, fought, shared experiences and grew together.
Years flew and two girls moved out of the school, but the friendship only grew stronger.
Then came the colleges, each moving towards different streams and different ambitions. Each had their own friends now, their own circles, but that was only besides each other.
Finally the day came when one was to get married and move out to US. Much as it broke their hearts, it was the way of life and move out she did, towards a very happy life. Now they could all meet only once a year but, thanks to modern technology, they were definitely still in touch and best of friends. Couple of years down the lane the second girl fell in love. It was great fun for all three of them what with all the chupke chupke stuff. Finally she too got happily married and moved to Europe.





Back to the present day.

One of the girls is me. My friends came back from the different corners of the world last week and we all met. It had been six months since I saw one of them and almost a year since I saw the other. We had only one day to be together, coz the day one friend arrived, the other was leaving. It was so lovely seeing them both again, totally seamless, almost like we had never been away. We could still yak away about anything on earth and knew almost everything about each other. Yes! We do owe a lot to the new techies, but I would like to think we would be just this way even without emails and chats

So what is the big deal, you ask?! There are many men who have been friends for many decades, right!
The big deal is that a girl’s life veers after marriage, most of her decisions are based on her new family and husband, while this is not so for guys. I am not blaming the husbands here, it is something the women choose for themselves.

I would be lost without my two friends. The first time we all went to a movie alone, all those beautiful times at the beach. The way we could laugh about everything and nothing. The way we knew the other would be always with and for us. Every memory of mine of the last 20 years or so is intricately woven with them.

N , P, Love you gals!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

I don't blame them

I did not want to come back to this topic, since I had already written about it... but could not resist. More so, since after ages I seem to have got my writing juices flowing again.

DMK came in and one of the first things it did was put in a rule saying all castes people can be priests in temples. Like this is the most earth-shattering decision that TN people were dying for and it is going to change the lives of all the "low-caste" people and make them creme-de-la-creme. Next thing we know he is going to bring in reservation into priesthood too. TN dya know, has the highest reservation of 69% despite the SC ruling. Selective secularism I guess, after all only the upper class hindu's are bad.

As one of my friend had said in his blog, I have loads of friends who probably belong to the lower classes. But I don't know nor do I care what caste they are. They are just friends, people...nothing more nothing less

I saw this interview with a doctor from chennai who says he completed all his education with the help of the reservation system, (I sure am never going to this guy for any ailments I might get) and expects his children also to have this system as a crutch. Aren't we making these guys lazy and spoiling them by saying don't tax ur poor brain buddy...u don't have to do anything at all we will take care of u as long as u live. Why does this doctor not think that now that he has the necessary education, he can bring his children up without the reservation?

I can understand why the politicians want to keep the caste system alive. God knows! they don't care a fig for the indian masses. The doddering old so-and sos are happy as long as they have some hold to manipulate vote banks and starts riots. But how can so many of the so-called educted people also agree with them? One idiot actually asks "if we can have reservation in primary education, why can't we have it in higher education?" sigh!.

Ok so the upper classes oppressed the lower classes many years ago and we hate all upper class people. By the same formula should we not hate the british too, after all they oppressed us for over 400 years. There is a saying " One gets angry only where its effect is felt"...such as on the vulnerable.

There are 500 students trying for one seat in the AIIMS and IMAs and over 70 students for a single seat in the IITs, IIMs and IIScs. If we give 50% reservation of this to the OBCs then the ratio doubles and the worst part is that the OBCs and SC/ST students can also compete in the left over seats. Any person revolting against this will be lathi charged and maimed because India is the largest democracy that respects the rights of her people.

I got this quote by Dr.Kiran, Junior resident, AIIMS as a forward

" The government cannot hide its inadequacies in providing equal opportunities to the under priviliged in rural areas by increasing the reservations. They have ruled the country for so many decades and if in this time they are not able to provide equalilty in primary and secondary education for in dian citizens they cannot mask their failure by providing reservations at each and every level. Its ridiculous. The whole issue of reservations was a political gimmic of the present govt to garner votes.

Its time that things are not taken for granted by any one. Let it be a senior minister police or anyone else. Whole of our nation needs to get aware of the amount of hardwork and sacrifice we put to achieve our dreams. We should not allow anyone to make a mockery of our struggle in future"


No wonder scores of people run away from India as soon as possible. I don't blame them one bit.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Sauten - Oh Yuck!!!!

Yeah the movie!!!! If u have not seen this movie... Please don't...
Then again if u are someone I don't like... i think u should really watch this movie.
Absolutely worth ur time :-p

Got this movie as a freebie CD (just now elections in TN got over... but i am still not over it :-)), coz of course no one would pay to get this movie
Anyways the name sounded familiar and i thought it was familiar coz someone had said it was good.

Little did i realise that i had actually read somewhere that only people with death wishes should see it.

I am still not sure what the actors were trying to do, but what ever it was, it was not acting.

The story goes like this the hero (it took me sometime to realise the creepo was the hero) has an affair with this rich old guy's young wife and then he falls in love with the old guy's daughter (acted by Kiran of gemini fame...ooh yuck!)... and i am guessing he eventually marries her too, being so chaste and heroic and all that.

God knows I could not last more than 20 minutes (and I will have u know that i am extremely awed and proud of my tolerance level) during which I fast forwarded through almost the full movie. The only reason I did not break the cd was coz it was not mine

God!!! I have heard of lousy movies but never one this bad.
There must be loads of filthy rich people who are ready to throw good moeny after bad money... how else can we explain films like this getting produced.

Grrr!!!

Friday, May 12, 2006

New training

I have just returned from this smashing program for leaders. It sure was instrumental for me to get to know me better. I was able to realise why people behave the way they do and how wrongly we interpret others when we view them from perspective and vice versa.

Infact let me share a beautiful example of active listening. check out the sentence and what is the first thing that comes to your mind... " The Man was lying in the bed unconscious when the masked man sank a knife into his stomach"... Be honest! you thought murder right? it could be surgery too :-)


It even taught us, some of the ways to be a li'l hypocritical to get our job done ;-).. Had three days of fun and came back to work dragging my feet.

PS: Wrote this blog three weeks back... too lazy to complete it... so here it is.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Duh uh!

So here I was zinging by the beach road, the Marina beach road to be more particular, at 12.30 in the afternoon. Its a pleasant 43 degrees and a cool breeze was blowing in from the sea. A breeze that promised to make people sorry for having the temerity to step outside. The AC in my car did not seem to be able to keep up with the heat outside. I turn my head and... gape.

I am not sure if I should be proud of the sturdy nature of chennaites or feel sorry for them. Ever heard of the Medieval torture of putting people in hot hot sand? well! there are people crazy enough in chennai who voluntarily run around the beach on a summer afternoon.
Not just lovers (which i can understand, coz none of their parents would suspect their offsprings of being foolish enough to invite sunstroke by necking in hot sun and so they are safe out there)..but even old people, groups of youths...and nary an umbrella on sight.

Walk on the hot sand... ok maybe they are trying to come out of the beach... but why would anyone want to actually sit and get their backside boiled. Am I missing something here... are their backsides made of some special material?
And funnily enough most times these people escape any kind of harm... but then God always does takes care of children and fools :-)