What am I doing posting a blog at 4 in the morning? It is not that I woke up early in the morning, it is just that I didnt sleep so far! Saturday is a working day at college, but my time table for this semester is quite strange since it has given me a week filled with classes but nothing and absolutely nothing on Saturdays. This means that when normal BITSGians have to sleep on a Saturday morning sacrificing their classes and feeling guilty about it(a guilt which lasts only until you realise that all lectures are useless and start bunking all of them), I can sleep in peace until hunger sets in and I'm are woken up by weird noises and search for the source of the noise reveals that it is but my own stomach that woke me up!
Enough about the circumstances, why am I doing it? Becasue I feel I have a thousand tales to tell, a thousand things to talk about and a thousand questions to ask. But as always when I want to talk, there is nobody around and this is the case whether it be 4 in the morning or 4 in the evening. So I do what I always do when there is no one to talk to, I talk to myself, a process that happens ever so often that I talk more to myself than any other person. Craziness you say? Read the title of the blogspot my friend! I haven't made a live post so far, meaning to say that I haven't wrote down something and posted in then and there. All my posts have been written down and checked be me and then posted. So if this one feels to be the worst of the lot or maybe the best, it is due to the aforementioned fact.
I tried calling a friend from school but didn't feel like saying anything so it ended abruptly
and so did another conversation. Maybe I have been trying to do too much, pretending to be something that I am not. I should better take a deep breath, get to sleep and wake up finding that everything is in order and all it needs to be made complete is for me to get up and get going. What am I typing, ah well, I suppose it is just unbounded words coming out as they are formed without any conscious effort to edit or hide anything.
Better get some sleep I suppose. I still want to talk, but I am tired of hearing myself talk and the hearing me is the one calling out for sleep and I follow his wish much to the anguish of that me which wishes to talk and discuss-discuss about anything in this world.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Attitudes and Aspirations
Different people want different things in life and have different expectations. I do not say it is wrong to have a certain attitude or that there is only one right attitude. This is an attempt towards examining what people aim to achieve from what they do. I begin with a small instance which happened to me. A friend of mine told me about a yahoo group dedicated to quizzing and the only question that I asked was about the name of the group. When I told this to another friend of mine, his first question was about the prizes that we would get if we answered the questions correctly. When I was looking for only fun, enrichment of my knowledge and the satisfaction of it all, he was looking for material gains. Why was there such a marked difference in the direction in which our thoughts travelled? I believe it is because of our attitude and our aspirations. We do things in life for different reasons and for me it has never been about material gains, whichever action that I was involved in, but rather about the glory and pride of doing it. I do not know whether it is good or not, but that’s what works for me.
What we want out of our actions motivate us and drive us to perform our tasks so that we can get the ultimate price, but in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord ShriKrishna advices Arjuna not to worry about the result of our actions, but it is only given to us to fulfill our duties and carry out our actions whatever their results may be. But in these days, rarely do we find someone who is engaged in a task without worrying about the result. If we are able to stop being concerned about the result, but perform our actions to fullest efficiency, then I gather that the results would be good whatsoever.
These days, the driving force behind anything that we do is money; it is only about the financial gains that we are worried about. The earlier concept was that 'Knowledge is Power Supreme'(the slogan of my college incidentally), but it would be closer to the truth if I say that knowledge is the means to make money and more money these days. Greed, the one thing that we must all avoid, but one thing that enslaves us even without we even know about it. Even when we aspire to be in a good college, the main driving force would be the money that we would be getting on completion of the course rather than our thirst for knowledge or hunger to learn more about our world. I must confess that if I am asked why I wanted to join a good engineering college, I would have to say that it was to gain a good job, but not any noble intentions of pursuing greater knowledge in order to do good for the mankind or such any enlightened aims. My aim was only to gain admission and thus gain more certainty about the salary that I would get, but it was not in the wildest of my dreams to become a good engineer or to study well, something which I find is common to many others and this is the reason why have I lost my way in college, something which I must rectify if I am to succeed in life and do justice to myself, this world, to life and to my parents. We must fulfill our duties and tasks and not worry about the outcome in order to lead a better life and to achieve success.
We must fulfil our duties and tasks and not worry about the outcome inorder to lead a better life and to achieve success. If we do what we are supposed to do in the right manner, success will follow invariably.
What we want out of our actions motivate us and drive us to perform our tasks so that we can get the ultimate price, but in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord ShriKrishna advices Arjuna not to worry about the result of our actions, but it is only given to us to fulfill our duties and carry out our actions whatever their results may be. But in these days, rarely do we find someone who is engaged in a task without worrying about the result. If we are able to stop being concerned about the result, but perform our actions to fullest efficiency, then I gather that the results would be good whatsoever.
These days, the driving force behind anything that we do is money; it is only about the financial gains that we are worried about. The earlier concept was that 'Knowledge is Power Supreme'(the slogan of my college incidentally), but it would be closer to the truth if I say that knowledge is the means to make money and more money these days. Greed, the one thing that we must all avoid, but one thing that enslaves us even without we even know about it. Even when we aspire to be in a good college, the main driving force would be the money that we would be getting on completion of the course rather than our thirst for knowledge or hunger to learn more about our world. I must confess that if I am asked why I wanted to join a good engineering college, I would have to say that it was to gain a good job, but not any noble intentions of pursuing greater knowledge in order to do good for the mankind or such any enlightened aims. My aim was only to gain admission and thus gain more certainty about the salary that I would get, but it was not in the wildest of my dreams to become a good engineer or to study well, something which I find is common to many others and this is the reason why have I lost my way in college, something which I must rectify if I am to succeed in life and do justice to myself, this world, to life and to my parents. We must fulfill our duties and tasks and not worry about the outcome in order to lead a better life and to achieve success.
We must fulfil our duties and tasks and not worry about the outcome inorder to lead a better life and to achieve success. If we do what we are supposed to do in the right manner, success will follow invariably.
Casablanca-A Classic
Casablanca is a town in Morocco, but for me, it is far more significant as one of the greatest movies that I have ever seen and it is in this movie I saw the most beautiful woman I have seen-Ingrid Bergman. As one of my friends rightly pointed out, god doesn’t make those kind of women any more, the ones with sweet, haunting beauty, the feeling of which, lingers long after it’s gone. Its one of the sweetest and most memorable movies ever, with great dialogues, memorable settings and Humphrey Boggart was simply superb as the American Cafe owner in Casablanca. The music from Sam was utterly romantic and Victor Lazlo as the French rebel does justice to the role of a man who has realised his destiny and was willing to do and doing anything and everything in his power to fulfil that destiny. Sharp, witty dialogues, romantics scenes, painful love, all of which made me want to be loved in a way a man can be loved only by a woman. The movie has several memorable scenes which stay with you for a long time. The scene where Elsa asks Sam to sing the song 'As time goes by' and then Rick hears the song and is surprised, the scene when Rick sees the letter from her in the rain and the words fade and are deformed by the water drops, which symbolises love that is taken away and Rick is unable to do anything and he has to leave in the train since he has no other option. It’s not just the pain of lost love, but also the love that Elsa has for Lazzlo another sweet occasion is where Rick saves the young couple from Bulgaria by manipulating and providing money from his own cafe's roulette table and these are all examples of love, honesty and integrity at the times of difficulty, turmoil and conflict. There are just so many things that I like about the movie. The most memorable quote for me is 'Here's looking at you kid' and also 'of all the jinn joints in all towns in all the world, she walks into mine'.
Finally Rick realises his destiny when he does 'the thinking for all of them' as was requested by Elsa. He helps Lazlo escape with Elsa and decides to help the efforts against the Nazi rule in his own small ways and he begins by killing a German General who was trying to stop Lazlo from escaping from Casablanca. In the end, comes one of the best quotes from a movie' Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'.
There is one special moment and that too comes at the end when he convinces Elsa to go and speaks to Lazlo about what had happened between them and tells him that she can not love him(Rick) anymore and her right place is with Lazlo and his(Rick's) place is at Casablanca. She asks him, 'What about us' and he replies, 'we will always have Paris' and that is one dialogue that means a lot in the movie. Those words contain the entire movie, its plot, what happens and how it ends.
OSO a superhit?OMG!!
I just watched Om Shanti Om, the movie that created a lot of hype so much so that it was the talking point months before its release date. SRK wearing an OSO T-Shirt to the 20-20 cricket world cup final was just a small step. To be honest, I can’t quite understand what’s behind all the excitement. Everyone who saw the movie told me it was simply superb, but I think they meant that it was a good entertainer. That’s the opinion I have, a good entertainer but large portions where I just felt that something was wrong.
The first part of the movie does justice to all the hype surrounding it. I liked the aspirations of Om Prakash, to become an actor, his dreams and the fantasy land he has about Shantipriya. Arjun Rampal as the villain looks quite the bad guy! Deepika Padukone does okay as Shantipriya and her second part isnt quite significant when compared to SRK's role as Om Kapoor. In fact, the movie was all about one person and so much centered on an actor, not a character, that makes me feel that the movie is really hollow. Beneath all the hype and excitement, there is absolutely nothing! It’s HOLLOW and the story isn’t something that really impressed me, all about reincarnation and the soul (or ghost!) of Shanti appearing at the end. It was predictable and one could predict each and everything that was going to happen in the second part of the movie, it was so obvious.
"Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!"?? OSO cant get anywhere near Margaret Mitchell's classic and it would take the impossible to make one of SRK's dialogues one of the most memorable ever in movie history!
Also, the jibe thrown at the way in which movies become successful due to an item song! SRK shouldn’t forget that he too did an item song for a movie along with Malaika Arora!The camera work by Manikandan is really good with several shots having angles that give a unique view and the art direction by Sabu Cyril deserves a huge round of applause, especially the recreation of the 70s feel and surroundings. That remains an outstanding part of the movie. Also costumes were designed with some real good sense by Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar(??!!) and Sanjeev Mulchandani. Music by Vishal and Shekhar was good and some of the songs were really good, which is just business as usual for Javed Akhtar but I have strong opposition to one track that was around 8mins long. I am talking about the song where all of Bollywood’s stars decent upon the set to congratulate Om. A song stretched long enough to present all of Bollywood’s stars (bar a few notable exceptions who I mentioned before), was just too much for me. Editing too deserves some praise I believe for the blending of the first 'Om Shanti Om' actually starring Rishi Kapoor track with Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan was flawless.
OSO proves that a movie with a lot of hype, a lot (and I mean a LOT) of superstars, although for just a few minutes, will pull in the crowds and make your movie a huge success even if it lacks a soul and remains hollow!!!
PS-I am posting this around 3 weeks after actually watching the movie but was written immediately after watching it.
Madness doesnt get any bigger than this
What is life? The answer to this question occupied the lives of our great philosophers and thinkers and most of them ended up providing us better ways to live and let live, but no one has been able to gives the answer to real question itself? What is the purpose of our lives, why are we here, why is that we become what we are, who we are and why is it I was born where I was and you were born where you were born? But then, to answer these, you need to define what or who an individual is! What is I and You? Does I and you correspond to two independent human entities with different views, opinions etc? This then transforms the question of ‘who I am’ and gives us another perspective of we are what we are because of where we are! An individual is not born. You and I were not born because when we were born, the difference between ‘who you are’ and ‘who I am’ is nothing. Except for the genetic information, our thoughts, actions are all something similar. It is then that the separation takes place, our upbringing, circumstances, and way of living and what we see around us. So an individual is the result of what he/she sees around himself and the influence of what he sees around himself and an individual is the manifestation of the society's influence upon a human entity. Individual therefore are made, not born.
This too does not answer what is life and what its purpose is. I believe that the society influences a person and this influence is because the society wants something from the individual, something that the individual must supply the environment with and we do not what we must give it. Unless we are able to find out what it is, our lives won’t be complete and it would lack a meaning and purpose. This is what I would like to call destiny. This is what I would like to call the purpose of our living.
It is to find out what the society wants from and the pursuit of this knowledge and also providing the society with what we must, with that, which is our destiny is to provide. For it is the society and the environment that makes us and teaches us right from wrong and even these rights and wrongs are relative since each environment has its own rights and wrongs. It provides with what we need and so it is our duty to serve the environment.
Therefore life is a pursuit of this knowledge about our destiny and once we know what it is, to fulfill the destiny. This is what gives meaning and purpose to life.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Revival
It’s been sometime since I posted something, a fact which I attribute to the complacency that crept in as I was in college and so I was busy with one thing or the other and was never in a situation to think and put these thoughts into words and give form to them, which is the purpose of my blog. Some of my friends visited my blog and a universal observation was (not that the entire universe reads my blog, I am referring to those who have gone through some part of it), some of the posts are too big and too serious to be read. Well, I started blogging to give an outlet to my feelings and to express my opinions about what I feel are important matters in this world. But I think I better give some attention to the readability of my posts and so, taking that into consideration, I am posting this one just for fun. A light post on what is full of topics that require some degree of social awareness to understand.
Finished my second year first semester at BITS and believe my when I say it was different from everything that I had gone through! My friends entered the enchanting realm of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft where they played virtual characters and it was addicting to such an extent that I was scared for them. They forgot to have food on quite a few occasions! Then came the power outage in college, the main problem lasted for 5 days and after that we ran on minimal power needs, and power was restored by the time of exams. The inter-hostel competitions 'Zephyr' had its fair share of controversies, moments and I consider this years Zephyr a near failure caused by the absence of over 30% of the students and the power problem and judges, who had absolutely no sense of what they were doing. There were certain “revelations” (!!!!!!) and some consensus on our opinions about the girls studying in our college which, if I mention here, might just be mistaken as my general opinion about women. But the truth is, I have no opinion whatsoever about women, and as far as the girls in my college are concerned, I can only say, I wouldn’t choose any of them to portray ‘The Indian woman’ or as role models for my daughter, if and when I have a daughter. This brings me to a discussion we friends had at college on whether we preferred a girl or boy child. No one had a second thought as everyone wanted a boy as the eldest child and maybe a girl later, just maybe. The reason being, we know how far a boy can go with his secrets and devious ways and boyish behavior ;-) since we have been through that and are still in that process!!!! But if it is a girl, we have absolutely no idea, and we also know what will be attitude of the boys of her age (not very decent or ‘friendly’ and I say that from personal experience!), then the worries and tensions, whether she has a boyfriend or whether she is dressing properly and a thousand other concerns!
I had started the semester with a determination to reach a GPA of 8 which would get me closer to a CGPA of 7. Well, I wasn’t realistic I suppose. I have this knack for staying rooted to my spot when I try my best to improve, but like all other previous occasions, I will most probably be a 6 pointer with almost the same GPA for all three semester, around the 6.3 mark! I end the sem, making a remark that I have made on two previous occasions. There is always the next sem! I can only hope that it goes differently. I do not go in for an analysis and listing of my marks which would be confusing to anyone from outside BITS who visits the blog spot (again, not that there are many who visit this, but I have to be optimistic!). I learned a lot about social skills and it has been the most informative period in my life, academically, and otherwise. Academic, because I received introduction to basic electronics, advanced knowledge on quantum chemistry, some amounts of higher mathematics and management. I also learned about attitudes, I have been able to better understand or atleast tried to understand a little bit about their behaviour, what each person is looking for and expecting out of what they do. Fruitful, also to my life's pursuit, since I was able to conduct, what everyone in the quiz club at college has praised to be, the best quiz in the sem. I have also got an opportunity to conduct the science and technology quiz during our college's national level Tech-Fest, christened Quark. It has been a good sem for me, except obviously for the academic part and as I mentioned, and there is ALWAYS (!!!) a NEXT SEM!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Changing Face of my City
Cochin, the queen of the Arabian Sea, in Kerala is my hometown and I have always loved this place. It had places to have fun, to relax, movie theatres, the people are nice and the bus rides and travelling in your own vehicle were an experience in itself. In the last 12 months, I have spent only 3 months in this place as I started my college life at BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus. I missed this place a lot as I could come only during Divali for 5 days. But in the 5 days that I stayed in Cochin, something started telling me there was a lot happening in my hometown. I thought it was because I was coming home after 2 months and these where only the inevitable changes that happen to everything on this planet as I believed that change is the only constant in this world although I have had difficulties accepting these changes.
It was christmas when I came home again, another 50 days or so after I had left and this time, I was convinced that Cochin is not the old town that I had known. There was a building spree, which involved residential complexes, shopping malls and several other projects. Infact, during this stay, I met several people, conversing in hindi, of which I initially took no notice as in my campus, I am very much used to it. But then I realised that this was Cochin and the fact that this happened close to my house got me thinking. What is happening? Since the vacation was only for 20 days or so, I spend it trying to meet my old friends and keeping in touch with my new ones and could not linger over that question.
Now, this summer vacation lasts for 80 days and this gave me ample time to mull things over and find an answer to the question that I raised above. An important development was the signing of an agreement between the Goverment of Kerala and a Dubai based company for the establishment of software, Internet and IT related township in my hometown. Along with this, there were several other changes. An International container terminal was going to be built and the inaugration of the project had already been done sometime ago. Both these projects have been hanging in the balance for well over a year, due to political wrangling, protests over land acquisition and the obvious delays in the working of the politicians and bureaucracy accompanied by the fact that
Kerala was a state that had strong communist feelings, which had earned it the tag of an investment unfriendly state.
Cochin has long been the economic and Financial capital of the state of Kerala, something which came as a result of the natural Harbour, where a commercial port along with a navy command post has been established and also boasts of an International Airport, the first private ariport in the country. The two projects that I mentioned in the previous para had the Government playing some part in it, whereas several other changes came about as a result of private players. A software technology park was built in the Cochin Special Economic Zone, christened Technopolis and the biggest office building in Kerala was coming up at Kaloor, the work for which is nearly over now. There was also an explosion in Internet penetration, satellite television channels and Mobile phone connections across my state.
The last one had already happened two years before which now has come to a situation where even 14 year olds had mobile phones which means that there were 3 to 4 mobile phones in each household! If it was for parents to keep in touch with their children, they needn't have used some of the latest models available, which were also costly! I was more than amazed as even now, at the age of 19, I have a basic handset with no Bluetooth, Radio or Camera, something that my juniors do not even consider as a mobile phone! There are now more flats and shopping malls in the city and it is definitey becoming a 'Chotta Mumbai', or 'Little Mumbai'.
More people now own cars and their purchasing power has increased greatly which is clearly evident from the presence of international brands in various outlets across the city. There has been a rapid shift in the culture of the city and the landscape is also changing day by day. The mall culture, until now an unknown quantity is going to spread rapidly as construction of around half a dozen malls are under way and more and more people are living in high-rise apartments! The development has rewritten the concept of Keralites about owning a home as people are moving to flats due to varied reasons like security, no hassles of maintenance and amenities as it is taken care as a common facility, which grants some freedom to those with little time for themselves. The youth are now more exposed to the western world then ever before and they are very much familiar with Hollywood stars and Pop musicians, hang out regularly with friends and have more freedom these days than those in their age had until a few years ago. There has been change in the attitudes, aspirations, dressing style and their outlook.
I do not attribute these to the gradual changes that must take place, but the city is changing at a pace that not many of its residents are realising and with this, the problems that come with development are also on the rise and since the people don’t realise how fast development is happening, they are also unaware of the problems that can come with development and become aware of it only when they experience the difficulties. A small example is the garbage disposal in the entire district, which has been paralyzed and now the stench is spreading. I do not know whether this is the city that I want to live, since it is no longer the city that I loved. With these developments, I am going to loose it to a metropolitan city, with higher aspirations driven by modern technology and modern economy, a city chasing big dreams, big money and bigger oppurtunities where the people will live in apartments kissing the sky.
It was christmas when I came home again, another 50 days or so after I had left and this time, I was convinced that Cochin is not the old town that I had known. There was a building spree, which involved residential complexes, shopping malls and several other projects. Infact, during this stay, I met several people, conversing in hindi, of which I initially took no notice as in my campus, I am very much used to it. But then I realised that this was Cochin and the fact that this happened close to my house got me thinking. What is happening? Since the vacation was only for 20 days or so, I spend it trying to meet my old friends and keeping in touch with my new ones and could not linger over that question.
Now, this summer vacation lasts for 80 days and this gave me ample time to mull things over and find an answer to the question that I raised above. An important development was the signing of an agreement between the Goverment of Kerala and a Dubai based company for the establishment of software, Internet and IT related township in my hometown. Along with this, there were several other changes. An International container terminal was going to be built and the inaugration of the project had already been done sometime ago. Both these projects have been hanging in the balance for well over a year, due to political wrangling, protests over land acquisition and the obvious delays in the working of the politicians and bureaucracy accompanied by the fact that
Kerala was a state that had strong communist feelings, which had earned it the tag of an investment unfriendly state.
Cochin has long been the economic and Financial capital of the state of Kerala, something which came as a result of the natural Harbour, where a commercial port along with a navy command post has been established and also boasts of an International Airport, the first private ariport in the country. The two projects that I mentioned in the previous para had the Government playing some part in it, whereas several other changes came about as a result of private players. A software technology park was built in the Cochin Special Economic Zone, christened Technopolis and the biggest office building in Kerala was coming up at Kaloor, the work for which is nearly over now. There was also an explosion in Internet penetration, satellite television channels and Mobile phone connections across my state.
The last one had already happened two years before which now has come to a situation where even 14 year olds had mobile phones which means that there were 3 to 4 mobile phones in each household! If it was for parents to keep in touch with their children, they needn't have used some of the latest models available, which were also costly! I was more than amazed as even now, at the age of 19, I have a basic handset with no Bluetooth, Radio or Camera, something that my juniors do not even consider as a mobile phone! There are now more flats and shopping malls in the city and it is definitey becoming a 'Chotta Mumbai', or 'Little Mumbai'.
More people now own cars and their purchasing power has increased greatly which is clearly evident from the presence of international brands in various outlets across the city. There has been a rapid shift in the culture of the city and the landscape is also changing day by day. The mall culture, until now an unknown quantity is going to spread rapidly as construction of around half a dozen malls are under way and more and more people are living in high-rise apartments! The development has rewritten the concept of Keralites about owning a home as people are moving to flats due to varied reasons like security, no hassles of maintenance and amenities as it is taken care as a common facility, which grants some freedom to those with little time for themselves. The youth are now more exposed to the western world then ever before and they are very much familiar with Hollywood stars and Pop musicians, hang out regularly with friends and have more freedom these days than those in their age had until a few years ago. There has been change in the attitudes, aspirations, dressing style and their outlook.
I do not attribute these to the gradual changes that must take place, but the city is changing at a pace that not many of its residents are realising and with this, the problems that come with development are also on the rise and since the people don’t realise how fast development is happening, they are also unaware of the problems that can come with development and become aware of it only when they experience the difficulties. A small example is the garbage disposal in the entire district, which has been paralyzed and now the stench is spreading. I do not know whether this is the city that I want to live, since it is no longer the city that I loved. With these developments, I am going to loose it to a metropolitan city, with higher aspirations driven by modern technology and modern economy, a city chasing big dreams, big money and bigger oppurtunities where the people will live in apartments kissing the sky.
Hectic World
Consider this-the world on average now sleeps less than 7 hours a day. Compare this with almost 8 hours until a decade ago and almost 9 hours at the end of the 20th century. Why are straining ourselves more? Why do we work more, try to earn more, exert ourselves more and chase our targets with more and more vigour although it is not good for our health? We do it to survive in this world and our efforts are actually to make it a better world for us, Ironically enough, it is becoming more and more difficult to get through each day! Hyper blood pressure, mostly an age related disease is affecting teenagers due to the pressure to perform- to perform in exams, in life and due to peer competition. We strain ourselves more and more each day in an effort to get a good and better life but this pursuit ends up consuming ourselves. We have very little time on our hands and there is a lot to do with the 24 hours we have. We cannot reduce the time we spend at the workplace, infact, we have are working so much more than any of our previous generations that, it forces me to question the purpose behind technological, economical and other sorts of development that we claim to have achieved over our ancestors.
We are doing more work than ever at the office and this requires time. Although there has been an increase in the work we do, there hasn't been a similar rise in the number of hours we have in a day unfortunately. So, where does the additional time we need come from? One of the first things we did was to increase our efficiency and we achieved this with computers and other aids. But that was not enough and we needed more time and this came from our leisure time, the time we spend with our family and from our sleep. All this adversely affects our physical, mental and overall health. We try to cramp more work into less time but corporates being just profit-seekers first and foremost, force their employees to work more. Even in the case of students, life has never been more competitive and hectic and this is especially true in our country. We work more and more than previous generation ever dreamed of, but does that mean that we lead better lives? If we observe it from the financial perspective, there is no doubt that we are better off. But, is it just about money? Shouldn't we take into consideration what amount of effort we put in and what we have lost and what sacrifices we make to gain the money?
For starters, we have very little time to spend with our family and an ad by a
South-East Asian Airline company, which says that booking tickets online will give you more time to spend with your family is a sign of how hectic life has become. There are those who can’t even spend an hour exclusively with their family a week! We hurry to keep our appointments, to make it in time to the office, to finish assignments and projects on time, but we do not hurry when we go home, as there is no pressure to get home early but on all other occasions, we are under pressure to perform in a time bound manner. All this pressure and expectations and competition has resulted in more and more suicides and attempts at taking ones on life are alarmingly on the increase to such an extent that people talk freely about suicide as though it was the easiest of ways to escape and find relief from this world. People are more depressed these days and anti-depressant drugs are taken even by teenagers, as they couldn't handle the peer pressure and deliver the expected academic results. There is no sign of things getting better, infact they are getting worse by the moment.
Life has become a mad rush and is going to remain so unless we do something about. It is our greed that creates this rush. Big corporates exploit and over work their employees for their gains, to such an extent that what the company gains in one day from each employee is what that person gets in an entire month! This is just one of the many instances of giant companies increasing their profits by what is called increased efficiency. But what those at the top of these corporates don't realise is that these men and women too have families
but they are unable to spend time with them and unable to find time for leisure and just sit there and relax. In an article that appeared on the TIME magazine, it says that Asian fathers are struggling to see their children awake even once a day as they go to work before the children are up in the morning and reach well past the their kids' bed time.
We are becoming so career oriented that the concept of family relations is taking a heavy toll and we are simply becoming mechanical in our life and a machine like life is the last thing we want!
We are doing more work than ever at the office and this requires time. Although there has been an increase in the work we do, there hasn't been a similar rise in the number of hours we have in a day unfortunately. So, where does the additional time we need come from? One of the first things we did was to increase our efficiency and we achieved this with computers and other aids. But that was not enough and we needed more time and this came from our leisure time, the time we spend with our family and from our sleep. All this adversely affects our physical, mental and overall health. We try to cramp more work into less time but corporates being just profit-seekers first and foremost, force their employees to work more. Even in the case of students, life has never been more competitive and hectic and this is especially true in our country. We work more and more than previous generation ever dreamed of, but does that mean that we lead better lives? If we observe it from the financial perspective, there is no doubt that we are better off. But, is it just about money? Shouldn't we take into consideration what amount of effort we put in and what we have lost and what sacrifices we make to gain the money?
For starters, we have very little time to spend with our family and an ad by a
South-East Asian Airline company, which says that booking tickets online will give you more time to spend with your family is a sign of how hectic life has become. There are those who can’t even spend an hour exclusively with their family a week! We hurry to keep our appointments, to make it in time to the office, to finish assignments and projects on time, but we do not hurry when we go home, as there is no pressure to get home early but on all other occasions, we are under pressure to perform in a time bound manner. All this pressure and expectations and competition has resulted in more and more suicides and attempts at taking ones on life are alarmingly on the increase to such an extent that people talk freely about suicide as though it was the easiest of ways to escape and find relief from this world. People are more depressed these days and anti-depressant drugs are taken even by teenagers, as they couldn't handle the peer pressure and deliver the expected academic results. There is no sign of things getting better, infact they are getting worse by the moment.
Life has become a mad rush and is going to remain so unless we do something about. It is our greed that creates this rush. Big corporates exploit and over work their employees for their gains, to such an extent that what the company gains in one day from each employee is what that person gets in an entire month! This is just one of the many instances of giant companies increasing their profits by what is called increased efficiency. But what those at the top of these corporates don't realise is that these men and women too have families
but they are unable to spend time with them and unable to find time for leisure and just sit there and relax. In an article that appeared on the TIME magazine, it says that Asian fathers are struggling to see their children awake even once a day as they go to work before the children are up in the morning and reach well past the their kids' bed time.
We are becoming so career oriented that the concept of family relations is taking a heavy toll and we are simply becoming mechanical in our life and a machine like life is the last thing we want!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Point of views...
If you ask ten people, why India lost in the world cup, you are definitely going to get 10 different answers and some ofthem might even be contradictory. One must accept these as different opinions of people coming from entirely different backgrounds, who think in completely different ways and have very little in common about them. It is important not to take only one opinion as correct and the others are wrong. But when it is a situation where only one opinion is correct,we must resolve the situation peacufully by discussion and mutual consultation.
In an argument, we must listen patiently and without bias to the opinions and come to a decision when only one opinion is correct but when there is no definite answer as could be said in the case of whether Technology is destroying more than it's creating or an opinion about a movie, the answer given by each person depends upon the frame of mind of each person and onthe way he/she thinks. Here, there is no definite answer and it is about this case that I would like to discuss. Let us take the example of a movie- one person says he liked an action movie which had great fight scenes enhanced by visual effects and graphic jugglery whereas another person says he liked a love story which he says had a human touch. To an outsider and a neutral person, these represent two individuals with different tastes which makes them like different things and so there is no definite answer to their argument. But there is a chance for a conflict between these two individuals and they would argue their cases agressively with neitherof them conceding an inch. If atleast one of them had the sense to understand what the neutral and unbiased spectator did,we can avoid a possible confrontation. We see these sort of opinion differences always in life- between boys and girls where each of them say they are better than the other or in who is the better actor or the best cricketer or which is the best team in world football or which religion is better. There is no point in arguing as none of the sides are going to admit what they say or believe is wrong. The argument can heat up and lead to violence which provides all the more reasons to resolve the issue amicably by either finding out who is right or by making them realise that both opinions hold because of the reasons that I have stated previously.
If those who do not have the ability or the broad mindedness and the wisdom to accept different views as that of different individuals come to the seat of power, then this could be a recipe for disaster as they might not agree with some other personin a similar position of power and this might lead to conflict and such a conflict between the powerful can have disastrous consequences. While working in a group, all the members will have their own opinions, viewpoints,suggestions and each individual will have his/her take on each issue. If atleast one of them is so stubborn and adamant as not to accept others and wants prime importance to his/her opinion, then the entire groups working can be affected.
For a healthy argument on all issues, we must be patient enough to listen to all the views, make honest criticisms, accept those that are correct and discard those not required. Beliefs, values and ideals are relative as each person defines themin his own way. It is this lack of understanding, acceptance and tolerance that leads to religious conflicts, sectarianviolence, insurgency and even terrorism. The inability of the Palestinian and Israeli government to drop all prejudices,listen to each other patiently and accept each other has lead to the loss of innumerable lives over the decades. The same lack of respect, tolerance, impatience and unwillingness to accept each other lies at the heart of the conflict between Ireland and Britain, between India and Pakistan and several other cases.
This world will have peace, stability and comprehensive development only when all its people, nations, religious groups and sects understand, accept, tolerate and bear with each other patiently leading to the realisation that all of them can co-exist in this world and settle their differences amicably without violence, abuse and the use of force.
In an argument, we must listen patiently and without bias to the opinions and come to a decision when only one opinion is correct but when there is no definite answer as could be said in the case of whether Technology is destroying more than it's creating or an opinion about a movie, the answer given by each person depends upon the frame of mind of each person and onthe way he/she thinks. Here, there is no definite answer and it is about this case that I would like to discuss. Let us take the example of a movie- one person says he liked an action movie which had great fight scenes enhanced by visual effects and graphic jugglery whereas another person says he liked a love story which he says had a human touch. To an outsider and a neutral person, these represent two individuals with different tastes which makes them like different things and so there is no definite answer to their argument. But there is a chance for a conflict between these two individuals and they would argue their cases agressively with neitherof them conceding an inch. If atleast one of them had the sense to understand what the neutral and unbiased spectator did,we can avoid a possible confrontation. We see these sort of opinion differences always in life- between boys and girls where each of them say they are better than the other or in who is the better actor or the best cricketer or which is the best team in world football or which religion is better. There is no point in arguing as none of the sides are going to admit what they say or believe is wrong. The argument can heat up and lead to violence which provides all the more reasons to resolve the issue amicably by either finding out who is right or by making them realise that both opinions hold because of the reasons that I have stated previously.
If those who do not have the ability or the broad mindedness and the wisdom to accept different views as that of different individuals come to the seat of power, then this could be a recipe for disaster as they might not agree with some other personin a similar position of power and this might lead to conflict and such a conflict between the powerful can have disastrous consequences. While working in a group, all the members will have their own opinions, viewpoints,suggestions and each individual will have his/her take on each issue. If atleast one of them is so stubborn and adamant as not to accept others and wants prime importance to his/her opinion, then the entire groups working can be affected.
For a healthy argument on all issues, we must be patient enough to listen to all the views, make honest criticisms, accept those that are correct and discard those not required. Beliefs, values and ideals are relative as each person defines themin his own way. It is this lack of understanding, acceptance and tolerance that leads to religious conflicts, sectarianviolence, insurgency and even terrorism. The inability of the Palestinian and Israeli government to drop all prejudices,listen to each other patiently and accept each other has lead to the loss of innumerable lives over the decades. The same lack of respect, tolerance, impatience and unwillingness to accept each other lies at the heart of the conflict between Ireland and Britain, between India and Pakistan and several other cases.
This world will have peace, stability and comprehensive development only when all its people, nations, religious groups and sects understand, accept, tolerate and bear with each other patiently leading to the realisation that all of them can co-exist in this world and settle their differences amicably without violence, abuse and the use of force.
Just 4 funnn
I just saw a programme on NDTV 24*7 where viewers where asked to vote on whether the Indian public is obsessed with fairnessof skin. The outcome was that 82% of the people felt that Indians are obsessed with fairness. The vote was inspired by the recent Tamil movie 'Shivaji' starring Rajinikanth, because in the movie, the hero's lover turns him down due to his dark complexion. I must confess that I too am attracted to fair colour rather than a dark one and I do think that most people would place complexion as one of the most important factors determining beauty. Being a teenager, it is all the more obvious for me because when a dark coloured girl passes by, I wouldnt care much about it, but when it is a fair skinned girl, I do try to have a second glance(no wrong intentions dear reader!). I do not know whether it is an obsession, but it is a fact that dark skinned people are much less preferred over fair skinned ones in marriage. The case is same regardless of whether it is about a girl or boy.
The programmes also raised an issue whether this bias extended to other fields too. For example, would you take someone more seriously or pay more attention to a fair skinned person rather than a darker person. As far as I am concerned, I have never made such a discrimination in my life, but that could be because I am not old enough for that. I do not know for certain the reasons, but I am sure that I do not care whether a person is dark or fair when I meet that person. But, when it comes to marriage, I wouldnt insist on a fair skinned girl. All I want is someone who doesnt look ugly and not too dark please! And one more thing, when i go out with friends or I am just walking along or travelling, I would try to have a second look at someone who is fair! But even dark ones with a good look is okay with unless it is too dark! This is when I realise when people say 'Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder'. Perhaps, it is because of the difference in the way people define, perceive and enjoy beauty. So all you not too dark, beautiful girls, e-mail me. We could meet up!!!!!Okay, that was NOT supposed to be SERIOUS..... (I am not someone who goes partying and likes to freak out. My greatest fun is when I am with my friends and just chatting with them on any topic from movies to college life and ofcourse GIRLzzz!)
The programmes also raised an issue whether this bias extended to other fields too. For example, would you take someone more seriously or pay more attention to a fair skinned person rather than a darker person. As far as I am concerned, I have never made such a discrimination in my life, but that could be because I am not old enough for that. I do not know for certain the reasons, but I am sure that I do not care whether a person is dark or fair when I meet that person. But, when it comes to marriage, I wouldnt insist on a fair skinned girl. All I want is someone who doesnt look ugly and not too dark please! And one more thing, when i go out with friends or I am just walking along or travelling, I would try to have a second look at someone who is fair! But even dark ones with a good look is okay with unless it is too dark! This is when I realise when people say 'Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder'. Perhaps, it is because of the difference in the way people define, perceive and enjoy beauty. So all you not too dark, beautiful girls, e-mail me. We could meet up!!!!!Okay, that was NOT supposed to be SERIOUS..... (I am not someone who goes partying and likes to freak out. My greatest fun is when I am with my friends and just chatting with them on any topic from movies to college life and ofcourse GIRLzzz!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)