Why are Potential Sources Of Controversy Still Accepted as True??

The human mind loves misery and the human mind loves controversy. And yet we have potential time bombs of controversy untouched by it.

Take Religion for instance. No I am not talking about the crusade types wars or the ones happening around the world in the guise of religion being actually the wars of ego and of territorial gain more than anything else. I am talking about religion being accepted by the general public , including the very educated section among them, as true. Many of them must know about the lack of historical evidence supporting their religion and have known about it only through childhood discussions at home/ in schools/ at places of worship. They may also be aware of the conflicting historical evidence contradiction the very truths they have ever known. Many of them would have also watched documentaries stating the inherent similarities in the rituals of the various religions around the world and about the suspicion that most of them had been copied from each other , probably from the oldest among them and documentaries stating facts about the religious leaders very differently than they were known to be. Their scientific brain may also believe the nature of conflict of the so called facts. And yet not many people choose to voice their doubts regarding the same.Not because they can't. They have time and again raised their voices against all forms of injustice from high profile court cases to political, economic and social injustice. Then one might wonder why not this? Aren't the conflicting facts reason enough?? As a matter of fact they are. They choose not to because they think what good would it do to declare religion as untrue?? So what if the facts are all jumbled up? So what if the figures we believe in never really existed in the form we believe them to? So what if our scientific brain knows otherwise? We don't because it is their spirit that we believe in , even if not their words. We believe that something called religion shall be able to imbibe in people a moral consciousness , to help them differentiate right from wrong , to help them build in them a value system which would be very difficult to imbibe using just science. It is for this reason we choose to let it be :)

Take also for instance the National Anthem Of India. Many of us must be aware that it was originally written in the praise of the King of England by Rabindranath Tagore. It however doesn't anger many of us enough to raise a voice to have it changed. Not because we don't consider it important enough. We do, hence we don't wish to destroy the effect it has on young brains to imbibe in them a spirit of patriotism. More important than the word-meanings is the symbolic spirit it carries in generating in the hearts of the citizens of the country a zest for their motherland.

Remember the Da vinci Code? The section of the book which talks about the intentions of the Priory of Sion not to release the extremely controversial religious documents at all only for the reason that people are doing some good in this world just by following the religion they believe true and that is the serenity the Priory doesn't wish to destroy in its quest for revealing the truth in contradiction of the generally held beliefs.

Contemporary Gyan

The Race Is Not Over

Because I Havn't Won Yet..

Does Courteousness Disregard Equality

Is it really required? The chivalry and all they keep talking about?

For instance why should men offer their seats to women in a restaurant? Why should they allow ladies to enter first in a bus or car or anywhere for that matter?

Doesn't all this downplay the very equality of the fairer gender (as it is popularly called , for reasons beyond my understanding) ? Shouldn't the seats in restaurants be filled on a simple first come first serve basis? Shouldn't a queue be followed? The very concept of offering seats to women shows only that they might not by themselves be able to procure that seat and the only way they can is from a man courteous enough to offer them one. Is it too difficult to sit on the handle of a chair for a girl , just as all the guys can manage? I really don't think so. And if all those feminist groups and associations are so hell bent on procuring equality for women in government bodies and elsewhere , why do they fail to realise that the concept of equality must be embedded in the framework of the human mind and the society where men and women are not seen differently in any aspect and the way of life must reflect that. Isn't it only justified to say that not only should women be entitled to equal rights but also be entitled to equal inconvenience in case of lack of seating space or a long queue ....

Contemporary Gyan

A Child Grows Up When He Realises,

That He Has a Right Not only To Be Right

But Also To Be Wrong

Job Fit It Seems :-|

It may sound clichéd , but the placement season at a B-School teaches you a lot. Not so much in terms of knowledge, or interview skills or GD skills but in terms of how to get your way around things, actually more than that, how Others got their way around things while you were sleeping although you thought you were at your peak alertness. It also teaches you how to pretend 'effectively', sometimes subtly, but most of the times very obviously to wake up a sleeping GD or an interview panel.

It is said that companies are looking for a person-job fit. Believe me , its true. Not in the regular sense per se. It has more to do with how much of their work you as an individual can (will) do. Now , you d be thinking why I wrote this statement as a separate statement , sounds pretty useless as an additional piece of information, doesn't it? What I meant by work is not only their management work but also their mismanagement work, the unethical , so considered inappropriate work. (although the line between ethical and unethical is blurring by the day and ethical now extends up to the amount of moral dilemma your conscience can ignore. And that limit is different for different individuals and hence the difference in the definition of ethics etc.) ( Hilarious to see 'ethics' is now coming under the 'etcetera' category :D )

It is one helluva a sight to see a candidate so unaware of why he got selected and basking in the glory of his success for something great he bragged in his interview and how brilliant he is etc. etc.. I am not saying that that information wasn't instrumental in his selection, in fact it was probably the only thing that got him through. It was exactly what the panel was looking for. They were probably waiting for one such candidate who would actually break some rules and give some information (which he thinks shows him in good light , but the content of which is of no concern to the panel). A guy who could brag, lie, be able to disregard the rules and get their work done. It wasn't because of the content of the lie that you got selected but due to that very distinguished quality :D . Who do you think wants a hoard of people who are so damn high on morals that they d never agree to do the dirty work, What on earth would FMCG s ( in fact almost all sectors) do with them. The rules are on paper guys, some are required to follow them, some are officially not. When companies come on campus , yes, they are looking for a person-job fit, now you know what they want to fit whom into :-|

The placement season has been insightful , very interesting to watch human interactions and behaviours and ignorance most of all....

Whether You Win Or Lose , You Are a Rat In The Rat Race All The Same

I wont waste writing space giving an introduction to this topic, it is all evident. We (esp Indians) have been running around since the day we were born.The word 'competition' is becoming more and more cliched by the day. We ran to take admission to Montessori, we ran to take admission to kindergarten in the perceived best school in the city (even though we now realize it would make any difference whether you attend lower primary school or not), we ran again for admission to Std 1 in the perceived best school and kept running since then: Ran for the school bus , ran back home from the bus stop to pick up a lab coat or a record , ran around copying homework , ran in and out of class in the breaks more for the pending work than for the food , ran around with notes to mug for the test in the next hour, ran after school to keep our presence felt on the sports fields or extracurricular classes , ran from one fest to another to garner CV points and ran and ran and ran , and ran again to and from IIT coaching classes and filling admission forms to competitive exams for undergraduate courses. I ll personally take a break here.. I didnt exactly 'run' in my engineering college for a change , 4yrs of holiday :) , but then the race began all over again , MBA entrance exams , and the season of filling forms began and we ran to and from coaching centres and now at a B-school I am still running the Rat race.
Thought I had fallen many a times , but got up dusted myself and ran again to win or to lose at every step; I was in the race all the same. No time to stand and stare , No time to cry , No time to analyse where life s taking me , No time to stop and redo or remake , No time to make a new path , still treading the rough old path , still doing the tasks situations demand and priding myself at achieving the results of the preset tasks...

Where am I heading???? Is not the question I have time to answer , the best I can do is to make the best use of the trap I am already in....

Chronicles Of a B-School - Volume 1

It would be right to think that in a place like a business school , you 'll find diversity, people from all corners of the country, people having nothing in common with each other except maybe a common language , people brought up under different circumstances , studied in various engineering colleges across the country - I write Engineering colleges instead of undergraduate colleges because I wouldn't want to portray B-schools crowd as consisting of a mix of prominent number of Arts & Science grads.. It is not true , and it is a fact that almost all students are engineering grads and some others with a distinctive Psychology/Psychiatry/ Philosophy/ Economics/M.B.B.S./ Pure Sciences undergraduate degrees. But , mind you, there are just about one of each kind :)
And then again there are engineers who have done weird things in their lives :O Take my roommate for example. a simple sleepy girl, (very sleepy for that matter and she manages to get the grades :) , god knows how :| ) , very sweet , would simply attend all the scheduled classes and come and sit on her computer till I bring the roof down with my banter ;) , no one would ever think of disturbing the peaceful soul for group projects/assignments etc unless absolutely necessary, and no one could have imagined that SHE has the '21' kind of resume (If you can relate to the movie 21) . She had been to 2 undergraduate colleges - SRCC and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology , in a single lifetime I mean! After 12 std and a few months into SRCC, she comes home one fine day to 'inform' her parents that economics was 'boring' :| and very conveniently she was allowed to switch to engineering! Aare, I would be dead if i dared suggesting such things to my parents :O
Another of her chronicles : After a series of MBA entrance exams and their results , my dear rommie was called for a GD and interview round at IMT , Ghaziabad. It was then she built on her resume by turning up 24 hours late for her GD and interview :O .. Need I say more :|
She supposedly read the date wrong on her call letter and hence turned up for the same the next day.. And look at her accommodating circumstances once again, She was allowed in the process on a good excuse of having fallen ill the previous day ( imagne , the panelists actually bought that) .. SO you see, there are people who want to be exceptional and there are those who have no such intentions and turn out that way all the same :)

So , that was the Volume 1 of the chronicles- Of people who intend to make '21' jaise resumes , and those whose become '21' jaise resumes !!

Very Little Is Needed To Make A Happy Life

Contemporary Gyan

You Love Someone
You Marry Someone Else
The One You Marry Becomes Your Husband Or Wife
And The One You Loved Becomes The Password Of Your Email Id...

Hey, Our Raft Is Sinking !!!!

This post is dedicated to my dear sinking raft team mates - Mangsule , Shouvik, Sapan, Akriti, Indrani, GP, Vinay and Himanshu :)

It all began at the XL adventure trip when we were taken to the beautiful Dimna lake for water sports and were asked to construct a raft by ourselves with the materials provided to us (tyres , logs, ropes) .. It basically all began when we started "Strategising" to build the raft so as to win the so called competition by completing the task which included building the raft , climbing onto it with oars, rowing till the middle of nowhere and returning from that middle of nowhere to starting point where we would be served snacks at the end of the task in as short a time as possible... It also basically all began when we rejected one by one the ideas of constructing a hexagonal raft, a grid shaped raft, a square raft and what not and zeroing in on a simple straight raft , almost as shown in this google image :-|

It also basically all began when we quickly , smartly , sincerely tied the logs with the ropes loosely :-| and then very happily went out into the 'sea' hurraying with our oars.. rowed for a whole 4 meters when we realized that our poor raft was wobbling in the middle of nowhere.. our captain and co captain tried their best to keep rowing against the strong tide in the opposite direction, all the while everyone screaming and shouting and laughing alongside at everyone else on the god forsaken self constructed wobbly raft. And then the inevitable happened... the captain and the co captain fell off the raft :-| while the rest of the team members looked on bewildered and then burst out laughing when we realized that they hadnt drowned.. haha.. the raft had started falling apart by now and most of the members were busy holding onto it while the rest rowed in the middle of nowhere in the direction of the shore... finally we reached the other end of and reported, and turned back for the return journey... But , then again , all was not very well , especially when the weather became all stormy and ours was the last raft left in the lake, and two of our teammates were floating in the water and the rest were clutcing onto the raft and the remaining few were trying to row back.. hehe.. after dragging the boat for a few metres , the environmental conditions became unberable and before we could all drown , there came a rescue boat to save us :) .. then in the middle of nowhere , we somehow tied our so called raft to the hook of the rescue boat and were being dragged to the shore , when suddenly the water became too stormy and it started pouring heavily with boat the boats being dragged in the opposite direction.. admist the high tension packed adventure , each of us switched over from the broken raft to the seemingly safer boat and dragged our way out of the lake in the stormy weather to the shore.. on steppin out of the water , we were given a standing ovation by the rest of the group who had been waiting for us from the last two hours :-| ..

So , thats how it all ended.. the two hour adventure in the middle of the hugggggeee lake surrounded by mountains , the embarrassing standing ovation , a memory of a lifetime more for the organisers than for us ( they ll mention this 'incident' to the batches coming next year on ) and our "safe" return :)

Sweet September

Do not , on a rainy day ask your child , what he feels like doing, because I assure you, what he feels like doing , you wont feel like watching...
-- Fran Lebowitz

Come September and there are raindrops crashing down upon corrugated iron sheets, raindrops quenching the thirst of this parched earth , raindrops filling dried up dead lakes and ponds, raindrops washing off the layer of soot on tree leaves and clinging on to them like pearls, raindrops falling off rolled up car windows, raindrops bringing a smile on the face of every Indian farmer who has been praying heartily for this very moment of the sky showering down upon his land, raindrops filling up innumerable potholes on the roads of the country, and ending the wait of every rain enthusiast who wanted to jump in the rain filled slushy potholes having a time of his life.

The late revival of monsoons has lifted spirits of the people throughout after many parts of the country being declared drought hit not more than a month back. It has come as a relief not only to the agriculturists but also to the government and the urbanites. The unbearable summer temperatures have finally fallen and everyone is enjoying every bit of this Sweet September weather with farmers thanking God for saving their crops , lovers walking in the rain down canopied paths, office goers folding up their formal wear with a smile on their faces , children rolling in the wet mud , some science students trying out their models for rain water harvesting , poets sitting by their windows with a pen in their mouth, intellectual crowd becoming even more intellectual by the charismatic effect of the rain , people everywhere inhaling the sweet fragrance of the rain on dry ground, people frying pakodas in their homes and rest of them cosying up in bed by the windowside and catching up on movies.......

All this and more has a lot to do with what Sweet September is all about :)

Contemporary Gyan

First They Ignore Us , Then They Laugh At Us ,
Then They Fight Us And Then We Win...
-Mahatama Gandhi

Where the Mind is Without Fear..

There are two India s in this country..
One India- a tiny little voice at the back of our heads is looking down at the bottom of the ravine and hesitating,
The other India is looking up at the sky and saying
" ITS TIME TO FLY"
-India Poised Anthem

Proud to be an Indian!!

Contemporary Gyan

Don't Walk As If You Own The World
Walk As If You Don't Care Who The Hell Owns The World!

Einstein Level Discussions :|

Einstein Level Discussions are those which APPEAR to have earth-shattering findings and mountain moving plans pipelined for execution (AS IF) and the people involved in these discussions usually consider themselves highly qualified and intellectual to discuss over issues of National and Global importance and are extremely charged up (just before and during the discussion) to bring about a change in this seemingly incorrigible world of ours :| . So , that's the definition of Einstein Level Discussions.

Lemme State a few of them now ( While you can Roll On The Floor Laughing) :|

-> Managers in a boardroom drawing up plans.

-> Or still better , to-be Managers in a B-School Classroom discussing over situations of the corporate world. ( As If they ve been there , done that !!)

-> Silly case study and Group Discussion competitons in Engineering Colleges and funnier , even in B-Schools ( Everyone has earth shattering ideas , who the hell is gonna execute them?)

->Girls sitting in a hostel room at 12 midnight and carrying out a never-ending discussion.

-> Guys sittin in a hostel room / railway station (drunk) and discussing (usually about girls :|)

->Everyone discussing everyone elses relationships and who should have done what and when instead of what he did then

->The planning process for any task to be carried out requires immense ELDs and the planners think they are using more than 10% of their brain.

-> In a Group Discussion under consideration , ( for placements and the like ) you must see the ideas people put forth! ( Amazingly interesting and Totally useless :|)

Never Mind , its become an occupational hazard I suppose , So just sit back and smile to yourself thinking how many times you have indulged in these Elite Discussions all the while condemning the others who have done so ;)

Whats The Whole Hue 'n Cry About The CAT Going Online ??

With the Common Admission Test for the IIMs going online from 2009 , a section of people in the country are again screaming from the roof tops about the denial of equal opportunities for all :|

What they seemingly fail to understand before making such a hue n cry about the denial of opportunity to the rural folks who aren't well versed with the computer is that , there is some basic eligibility criteria for any institute which cannot be relaxed time and again to accommodate everybody. And its not like anyone's barring them to sit in the exam, it must be realized that to enter into the premier B-Schools in the country one must be reasonably comfortable using a basic device like the computer, without which nothing in this world moves. As graduates of these institutes , one is expected to be the face of the country to the global world and I really dont think they are asking for too much if they make their entrance exam go online! After all you dont mean to argue that computer skills can be learned even in those 2 (or 1) year of the MBA program, because then you'd say that we can consider scrapping the test of english language as well 'coz even that amounts to denial of equal opportunities to the rural folks!!

I DO NOT mean to say that we can be blatantly inconsiderate towards these sections of the society. I also DO NOT mean to say that all concessions being given to them at school and undergraduate level aren't required. I only mean to say that , before the National dailies print articles about this hue n cry over the CAT going online , they must think once from the institutes point of view. Not everything in the country is for social service , they've got to run a Premier B-School for god sake and putting it quite simply , a basic eligibility criteria is being able to use a computer, which in my opinion can be learnt with some practice before appearing for the exam as they are not asking you to develop new softwares or anything , all they are asking of you , is to be able to mark answers by the click of the mouse on a user friendly software. :)

Contemporary Gyan

If God Had Intended Man To Smoke,
He Would Have Set Him On Fire

Whats the "Touch Wood" All About!!!!

All the time we hear people say 'touch wood' for all their tiny little achievements for securing against some evil force a protection for themselves or for their loved ones.
" My brother topped his exam; Touch wood!" ,
" You look beautiful darling ; Touch wood!" ,
"I have finally recovered ; Touch wood!",

And then we say we have grown out of the superstition era :-|

However, there s a smart analysis of this seemingly baseless trend. You may believe in the 'touch wood' just because everyone does and content yourself that you are now safe, But , in saying 'Touch Wood' , do you not transfer the credit for what you've done to someone else, some unknown person and wash your hands off the credit you deserve??? Do you not pretend that your achievement is not yours but is attributed to some external force and that your usage of touch wood may secure you another good luck charm to get your work done the next time around. Why do you not proudly say that " Yes , I ve done it! and Thank you for the appreciation" ??? Why do you not accept the compliments and the comments and be confident that you will repeat the performance by your own ability???

It therefore seems illogical to me to keep using the phrase , because one must acknowledge completely that his achievement is his own! :)

Adaa

Yeh teri aakhen Uthi toh dua ban gayi
Yeh teri aakhen Jhuki toh haya ban gayi
Jo Jhuk kar Uthi toh khata ban gayi
Aur Uth kar Jhuki toh Adaa ban gayi

Contemporary Gyan

The More I Study Religion, The More I am Convinced
That Man Has Never Worshiped Anything But Himself

I wish there was a synonym for 'Happiness' ; the poor word is too underrated :(

A little girl once asked her mother : Mom , What are we here in this world for?
Mother : We are here in this world to make everyone happy
Girl : Then what are the others here for ? :|

To our generation , it sounds like some random motivational speech excerpt or a redundant philosophical crap, the hue and cry about 'happiness' I mean. No wonder I was looking for a substitute for the word. If i now write all the redundant stuff about money vs happiness, this post would be worth a skip, but considering the smart frame of mind I am in right now , I ll put it differently later on.
Many people think that some days are good , some are not so good and some days Bad and the days being as they are have something to do with what events happened during the course of the day including who said what and when , what marks one scored in a random test of ability ( as academicians define it :|) , which expectations were shattered on the day and so on...

They fail to see that being happy( forgive me for using the word , still looking for a synonym with the same effect) is rarely ever external. It is not true to say one will be happy if the circumstances are conductive and will be busy trying to cope in a morose state otherwise. They also fail to realize that one can (against the conventional wisdom usually found in books), condition himself to be 'happy' (I used the word 'condition' -> read as force himself , was just trying to downplay the effect of 'force' ) . If you repeat to yourself enough number of times a day "I will be happy , because I want to , and i deserve no lesser " , and you Love yourself enough , the number of not-so-good days and Bad days will reduce drastically.

Philosophy of life is actually simple - "Be happy" , the rest follows. It obviously goes without saying that to be happy you must not be guilty of hurting someone , indulge in any wrongdoing, screwing up a situation etc etc. Before you begin to think this paragraph is getting too lecture-like , let me remind you each one of us is not as bothered about any of the above mentioned 'activities' as we are about their impact on our happiness (read as unnecessarily occupying my mind when I should be having fun) by awakening our conscience or guilt or inflated egos.

Once you happen to love yourself enough , which I think is absolutely necessary for survival today , you will also learn that it isnt so difficult to be habitually happy :) , a stage where external factors have only minimal impact and you learn to get over events , negative atmospheres , negative idea and people by reinforcing your right to be happy.

Happiness is a journey ,not a destination
so, work like you dont need money
Love like you've never been hurt
And dance like no one s watching.

What Really Hurts when someone hurts you

Most stages of hurt arent about external conflict at all. You think you really care who said what and did what ?? Oh, come on , most of the junta in this world is too damn self obsessed (admitting I am one of them) to bother themselves enough about another being to a degree where solely external factors can hurt you.

What 'Hurts' is the internal conflict within oneself. It is your Ego which is hurt , the very fact that " How could you be so dumb , so as not to see it coming" ; or "Even though you saw it coming , what made you shut your brain and follow your heart " ; or " Why you didnt trust your Mind over your Heart, a lesson you had been repeating to yourself everyday before you decided to drop it to accommodate certain circumstances"

Before you decide to attribute your setback ( I call it setback , not hurt repeatedly) to someone else , however binding the circumstances , think for a moment , what is really hurting you , Do you recollect what he/she said or do you recollect what You did and said and are tryin to come to terms with your own self respect which you now consider violated because of your actions which you now regret.

Hurt therefore is due to Internal conflict more than it can ever be due to External conflict.

Hi Everybody :)

Why did I decide to blog all of a sudden ??

I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer.
- Douglas Adams

First I thought I ll plagiarize , then I decided to give the poor guy his due ;)