Poetry

Waqt ke dariya mein humne

Na jaane kitne gote lagaaye hain

Kabhi paar hokar doobey

To kabhi doob kar bhi paar ho paaye hain

Aarzoo kabhi bahaaron ki to thi hi nahin

Par kambakht kaatein bhi humein

Kahan sukoon se mil paayein hain

Baandh paayi hai bhala kab

Sarhadein khud sarhadon ko

Pal pal ki jubaani mei 

Kissse khud hi simat-te chale aaye hain

Sargoshiyon ke aalam mei

Chalki un yaadon mein teri

Ubhare har ik rang ki panaahon mein

Ye pal-o-palchchin bitaayein hain

---to be continued..??..may be...!!

A Rough Day..!!

Sometimes we start our day with full enthusiasm and then observe ourselves doing things differently, not in a pleasantly different way. And you know deep down within you:

This is not your style of working,
This is not how you do things usually,
This is not how you respond to things,
This is not how you perceive things,
This is not how you have ever done anything,
Suddenly you have lost your quick-wittedness,
Your presence of mind is blown away.

 

And this is certainly not the way you have ever spent your day and you would even ever wish to. This day and most moments in that day are a little different, different in some way, different in the way than all of your days passed by so far, there is something that makes you worried. You want your thoughts and mind to run in a different direction, to leverage something positive out of anything you think, anything you do, anything you sense around, the way you perceive things, comprehend and respond to external stimuli and  just be back to your normale. But your thoughts are just stuck somewhere, that too unknowingly, around something unknown, around something you do not want to waste your time on and you are still there, thinking of a way to get out of it. You find yourself very ineffective and inefficient compared to what you have always been and then you realize this is not you.

I don't know if anyone among the people out there, who would ever open this link and read this post, have felt this way.

I think there is something which is troubling my mind at this moment, at this very day. I realized this as the day passed by and now I think that I need a break, I need a brisk walk out on the road and inhale some fresh, soothing & relaxing breeze, to let it seep in, rejuvenate me & my soul and make everything else seep out.

Most of the times, an evening walk or a morning one, is more than a medicine to get rid of anything and everything, to unoccupy your mind and make a fresh start again! Atleast it works that way for me, just find out something that works for you.

Impulsive Plus Compulsive

Genuine, most Obvious, certainly Visible and Unfruitful traits of people belonging to my generation plus those who will follow, means the generation thereon...is most of them always live at the edge of being Impulsive and Compulsive..They don't think and do, rather they do and repent..and then later on prove the theory 'A bad workman always blames his tools'.

Yesterday, while coming out of a mall, we just stood next to the entrance and talked for a while, when we noticed that a group of people were assembling near the main gate (barely visible from the place we were standing). The group then slowly turned into a mob. Curiosity level among all the people around us increased for obvious reasons, for the mob there was not giving away positive vibrations at all.

A few seconds later, what we noticed was a youngster being beaten by 2-3 people of almost the same age. Surprisingly, the security guards at the entrance closed the door so that this guy could not escape and he was being beaten quite badly with helmets for reasons best known to them! No-one stepped in to resolve the issue, no one tried to help them talk over whatever conflict they had because they did not seem to be in a position to talk, Amygdala Hijack probably!

It did no good to anyone, may be one or both the parties wanted the other or each other learn a lesson, but I could hardly imagine any of the two using Neocortex (thinking brain) ..

I cannot comment on the need or the trigger of the situation because I do not know anything about the reasons it happened for but it was not a pleasant experience either for them nor for anyone around the place for sure, except a few people who probably enjoyed it as a free source of entertainment.

Yes, No, Maybe..!!

Sometimes, situations are so sudden, odd and novice that it becomes quite difficult to take a decision. What is even more difficult is to justify later whether what one did was really the apt choice..

Towards the end of the first day of this weekend, I was out for an evening walk, which is an inseparable part of almost all my weekends and sometimes, even weekdays. I was walking down the road, observing the things around, lost in my own thoughts. No sun, no rain and a cool breeze, weather in general was really pleasant. So, it made the experience more enjoyable.

Suddenly, I saw a bunch of 4-5 people coming from the opposite side and now walking towards me, no no no, not to hit me.. :) 

This incident was so sudden that I could notice only three of them, but I believe there were a few more standing behind them. One of them was a male of around 35-40 years of age, a female of around 30-35 years of age and a small kid, may be 7-8 years old. The female walked a little more towards me followed by the male and I could see that they wanted to ask something. The first thing which clicked to my mind, was may be they wanted to ask some directions, may be they were lost. So I just stopped to help them all. 

Both of them asked me the same question with a different set of words, super-imposed to give just one  meaning.."Do you know Hindi? "

I said, " Yes, I do." and I looked at them conveying that I could help you with some directions if you are going to inquire for some. [ I know usually I am not very good at this job, but I know this area quite well now.]

Next statement was, something like this...We came from a village and worked for a guy for a month and he ran away, did not even pay the wages to us..

I was perplexed..I mean I did not know how to react, for I did not know them, I did not know where they were coming from, whether what they were saying was truth or not, why were they telling this to me and of course this was none of my business..I never came across such a situation before this one..I did not say anything for a while and was still thinking about all this..

When I could hear another set of words..which meant.."We have no money to go back to our village and have no money to have food, we have not eaten anything since morning. Could you give us some money?"

I was just out for a walk around my house, so was carrying almost no money first of all. Secondly I did not know them, so how could have I trusted them?

I have always been a believer of the fact that "Beggars (or anyone who asks for money without doing any work) are burden to the society", especially if they are physically fit and capable enough of earning their livelihood. For those who are physically or mentally challenged, this is still acceptable. I was stuck with such thoughts but I managed to convey a "No" to them somehow, by nodding my head in disapproval of their behavior..

I could hear a repeated statement, this time they asked for some money in the name of their kid, for he had not eaten anything since morning.

For a moment I thought of helping them out but then again a logical reasoning occupied my mind. I have been a good observer always and did not get a vibration of any sadness from them, nor did I get the feeling as if they did some hard work for sometime and then the money of their hard labor was not paid to them. It seemed to me like a well rehearsed story, framed perfectly with fake emotions, to captivate the listener and exploit them on the emotional front to get some financial aid. So I denied again, moved forward...

From the moment thereon, I have a little in guilt in some corner of my mind for not helping them.What if they were really hit bad by the circumstances. But then the moment is gone and I have no strong evidences of knowing what is right and what's wrong..

Was my decision wrong ? Yes, No, Maybe

What would have been your take in such a situation..??

Tikona Broadband Sucks..!!

We took a prepaid broadband internet connection from Tikona Digital Networks for the year 08/2010 to 08/2011. Initially we were quite contented by the service and the internet speed. However there were hick-ups in the speed as well as internet availability after a period of time. When we wanted to shift to another apartment, even after calling them a number of times, there was no appropriate response from the company officials. We managed to get it done ourselves somehow.

We were quite frustrated with company's broadband service by the end of the year, there was no proper response ever from the customer care representatives. More as if they did not care about the customers.!!

We gave a call to the customer care, asking them to disconnect the services as we did not intend to continue with their internet plan anymore for the year 2011-2012. There were better services available at a much lower cost. Customer care representative, this time took a toll to convince us to continue with the plan. But we had already decided and were stringent to our decision. The person agreed and assured us that the service would be discontinued as and when the previous year's subscription ends.

After a period of around 6 months, sometime in January/February 2012, the company sent us a bill for the year 2011-2012, asking us to pay an amount equivalent to the annual internet subscription plan for the year. However it did not make any sense to send a bill to us for payment when we had already asked for the discontinuation of service. We called up the customer care service to inquire about the bill, when he/she assured us that this was some kind of mistake done by the billing department and would be corrected asap. However, the company had no such intent.

Again after a month or so, they sent us a few more mails, asking us to pay the bill, which they still do, with a threat of taking a legal action against us, if we don't do so. Their representatives call us from Rajasthan and prepaid sim cards of other cities claiming that they are advocates at some Tis Hazari court in Delhi. However, each of these people are well verse in telling about the payment page of Tikona with the exact placement and name of each and every button on Tikona's website. This is quite difficult for someone to remember, who is not a regular visitor of the website, a novice user or a legal practitioner. It takes sometime to recollect these level of details about a website even for a user of intermediate experience with the website

Even more funnier part is that, the person who calls up, is always standing outside the Magistrate's office and going to present the case in the court of law in 15 minutes, which are still not over, even after months. Everytime we track the mobile number via various tools available on the internet, it shows the mobile user's current location as somewhere in Rajasthan. It's a matter of immense shame that we have such ISPs in our country, running such scams and doing frauds to so many people in the country. A single search for complaint against ISPs gives a never-ending list of cases filed against Tikona.

http://www.consumercourt.in/broadband/117152-complaint-against-tikona-broadband.html

http://www.consumercourt.in/broadband/117633-tikona-bill-payment-after-disconnecting-broadband-connection.html

and so on..the list never ends..!!

Indian Education System

Somebody questioned about the trends in Education System in various countries today on Quora. While reading about various points mentioned by other people over there and doing a comparative analysis, I could see there are two major drawbacks which the education system we have in India puts forth:

Reservation: As we have reservation of seats for various sections of the society in all Universities/Institutes in India, it many a times(in fact most of the times) also lead to some reserved unoccupied seats in the top/elite colleges of the country. 

Reference for year 2011-2012: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/iits-had-757-seats-vacant-in--11-12-hc-told/962946

Performance Metric: Since we have Board examinations at Secondary/Senior Secondary level and Entrance examinations after Senior Secondary or High School. This in turn decides which stream(Science, Commerce, Arts) or degree major( Like Computers/ Information Technology/Mechanical... for Engineering or B.Com./B.B.A. etc. in case of Commerce and so on..) you may get admitted to. So your overall intelligence and fate is decided based on how you performed on that one particular day, the day of examination.

In general, even the weightage for various topics in each Subject is already decided by the Board/University or the Council conducting the exams, which creates this mindset of paying more attention to those topics which would fetch you more marks to get into the most sought after streams and degree majors in the best Colleges/Universites, even when the student would have no clue if that really meets his/her interest.

How could anyone else decide upon what should have more weightage and what is more important for me to understand and learn by setting up some random curriculum? Each individual is different with different set of qualities and capabilities, so instead of restricting it to a defined set of topics or courses..or whatever..let the person explore, give him/her the freedom to choose..If one selects a subject/curriculum which fits his/her interest aptly, that person can do wonders even in a not so hot/sought after dimension or career option..!!

Compliment Smells Fishy..!!

I find a lot of people longing to hear good words about themselves, just a few words or lines in their admiration makes them do almost anything for you. I belong to the second set of people. Our class of people are different as in we suspect each and every compliment made to you as a trap thrown just to get you caught. I know this may not be the right attitude towards people who are genuinely praising you. But then, this is how the world is now-a-days. Every word of admiration gives me a feeling of suspicion about the intention of the person who just spoke it. 

In today's mean world, where most people don't even waste a minute in talking to somebody without any reason or self gain, why would somebody spend a minute or two just to come to you and say nice things?

However, as they say, A Compliment a Day, Keeps the Blues Away..Certainly a compliment makes you feel a little good about yourself. But continuously re-analyzing yourself to keep up with those honey coated words is a real challenge. September had been a great month to me in that regard. Lots of people have been throwing away lots of nice & sweet words to flatter me..Thank you guys, I would try to take all of them positively..

Why do we all die to live, when we actually live to die..!!

It’s been a while since we, humans, last felt the air of content moving through the surface of our body, penetrating deep within our souls, healing the bruises and scars which were unattended for quite a long time now. All that we keep thinking of all the time is ‘Oh Man..!! I achieved this …What’s Next on the list to conquer..!!’.

Life is not a race to be won, an exam to be in the topper’s list, a brutal battle to fight for each and every day, Why can’t we keep things simple? Why don’t we just let this Life be nothing else but Life. What’s wrong in that name? I feel it sounds great this way.

For instance:

When a newly born baby is still toddling with the sunshine smile on his face, someone would not fail to make a remark with that grin on his face ‘Enjoy your childhood as much as you can, it’s just the beginning, you have lots to face and miles to go’.

When a freshman joins a company in which you are working right now, whether your workplace is good or not or the thought that person you just met with is friendly or not will be the second one on the list. The first thing which will pop up in your mind is either ‘Welcome to hell, come and screw yourself  as I do every day..!!’ or ‘ Does not he think too much of himself, an over-smart and overrated chap..!!’

In both the examples just narrated above, be it that sweet innocent child of Christ or the new colleague of yours in the later part

He might not understand what you just said to yourself or thought of while looking at him but don’t you think he is human too. We all keep blowing the trumpet of body language, comprising the 80% of all modes of human to human communication. Believe me if that is the case, you just gave someone, a reason to have an Err..!! feeling too.

Try to look at each morning with a rejuvenated spirit of love and an everlasting deep sense of human emotion, which would make life simple, smooth and easy. I will conclude it with the following lines, extremely close to my heart:

A ray of hope,

took me through

the zigzag row,

where a drop of dew,

smiles with the silvery luster

Just hope, one day

that sunshine serene

will lit up your face

and let it glow..!!

Think beyond the domain of losing and winning, even the sweetest of all wines would lose its taste, the prettiest flower will give up life one day, for each and everything is mortal with a manufacturing and expiry date of every joy, sorrow, emotion and not to forget, life as well.

The Volvo Experience

It was 17th August 2011, 8:45 am in the morning when I took the volvo KA01 FA-1677. The conductor had a badge  with D/O B No  5569 in Bangalore, Karnataka from HSR Layout to reach my office.

The conductor was way too rude, he does not have any sense how to deal with the people travelling through that Volvo and the driver was no less.

He treated the passengers like cattle, extremely rude he was with no sense to conduct with the female passengers. He behaved as if he owns the Volvo and is doing some favour on us by letting us travel through it.

There was no place to even stand in the Volvo but he was forcing us to go back and was shouting ridiculously on us to go inside. He also let many more people to get into the Volvo even when there was no space inside to accommodate more people. The people were standing right at the doorstep(entrance). It could have caused a mishap, even with a small mistake from the driver’s end, while opening and closing the door.

Also since we were standing right at doorstep we could feel the force laid by the automatic doors whenever it was closed.

I believe humans should be treated like humans and not furniture and also the Volvo employees should have little decency to talk politely and like humans.

The "Anna March"

Anna Hazaare is the name, which does not need an introduction today. He has started a spirit of revolution against corruption in the country. But every time I think about the way, people in India have adopted to fight against this corruption, there is one question that hits my mind hard.

Do the citizens of this nation really need to do what they are doing right now?

Will standing on the roads, causing jams, making human chains from east to west/ north to south of the city will really help?
Will just wanting to stay in a corruption free environment without doing anything concrete about it is the solution?

Many of us won’t agree, even many of my friends do not agree to what I say. But don’t we really need to re-assess the current situation and worth of the ongoing protest in the country. I personally feel that the untapped energy in youths is really being wasted over certain things, which is not going to make things better. One of the examples is these rallies or the “Anna March”, some manipulated version of Dandi March. The only difference being people have come out on roads with the so called reason of standing against the Govt. of India, but have they ever thought about the consequences. Most of them don’t even know why are they a part of the rally, most of the youths take it as an outing with friends and say..“Chal na yaar, we will have fun, aur attendance bhi to mil raha hai”. They are doing the rallies, but I don’t think they even feel the cause about which they are claiming to do all this. Second consequence, the traffic becomes still for certain hours, what if someone needs a quick medical aid and should be taken to hospital urgently. He/ She will die in between, on roads, won’t even reach hospital and get a chance to fight against death. Is it anyway fair to them?

People want a change in the current democratic set up of the nation, by simply relying on the Jan Lokpal bill, is this attitude fair enough? How many of us can take a guarantee that they have never let corruption flourish. I have a number of examples which people may consider as a must to do thing but have made corruption grow in one or the other way.

Most people would have used a cab/auto/taxi some or the other day, would have paid a fixed price, may be even double/triple of what the fair should ideally be. When we have clear norms of hiring an auto and paying on the basis of meter reading, why do we pay 50 bugs for going to the nearby market, which is not even a km or 2 away? Are not we strengthening the intentions of the auto driver to ask for 60 bugs from the next passenger?

Many people pay lacs of Rs as donation to some university/ college or even to schools now-a-days to get their children admitted.

People will pay more than MRP in super/hyper markets for many things quiet often, that too knowingly. They won’t even question this, because they think of their image, what other people will think if I ask for Re 1, which is charged extra. It does not go with my standards to ask for a penny.

People will throw garbage on the roads, spit on walls etc. and ask for cleanliness.

They will bribe just to get a BSNL sim card, electricity, water/ gas cylinder  connection, sometimes even for birth/marriage/death cretificate/ passport clearance and so on. So when we ourselves are not clean how can we ask others to be? Stop giving these bribes, supporting such acts, if no-one will, whom will they ask for bribes?  And not to forget one thing, those who take bribes are also a part of some or the other family, go correct your family members atleast, that will help and not these rallies.

It’s we, the citizens of any nation, who can actually bring a change by a deep sense of commitment and concrete attitude, by constantly working towards it and not some Jan Lok Pal bill.  If you can’t take a guarantee of yourself and your family of being corruption free, how can you even depend on the people who have framed or will be the part of the committee under this bill later?

What we need now is to assess the pain points, to remember our duties first and also contribute towards fulfilling it, because if you forget your Duties, you have no right at all, to claim your Rights..!!