I am ebony, I am ivory!
I am darkness, I am light!
I am the end of the road, I am its beginning!
I am your worst enemy, I am your best friend!
I shatter your dreams, I make them come true!
I like making a lot of friends, I am a very lonely person!
I can't keep secrets, I am the person you can trust the most!
I am the guy your mom warns you about, I am your mom's ideal choice for marriage!
I want to kill the dog on the side of the road, I want to give it a home to live in!
I will tell you things on your face, I will bitch about you behind your back!
I wont fail you come what may, I am the last person you can bank upon!
I look upto god with hope, I am an atheist!
I will smile at you at times hard and tiring, I will cry within!
I am your worst nightmare, I am your most beautiful dream!
I admire god, I worship satan!
I am black, I am white!
I am 0, I am 1!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
United we stand, Divided we fall!!
India is my country and all Indians belonging to my caste are my brothers and sisters. I love my religion and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall always strive to be worthy of it, even if it is at the expense of other religions.
I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and elders and treat everyone with courtesy, provided they belong to the same caste, creed and religion as I do.
To my people and only my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.
Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it? Well, welcome to the 21st century India, where people are not known by their talent or occupation, but by the caste or region they belong to! I vividly remember this particular story I had read as a kid. It was about this girl who was trying to break a bunch of 10 sticks. She tried a lot but was unable to do so. Then her elder sister advised her to untie the bunch and break the sticks one at a time. She was pretty successful in breaking those sticks subsequently. I don’t know how many of you remember this story. But, as most of our leaders have not studied beyond the first grade, they themselves know just this one story. The Britishers we so very much loathe for having ruled India for so many years have taught us one very important lesson. DIVIDE AND RULE!! And it is this very concept that our politicians are using in order to exploit the minor differences between us INDIANS.
According to Wikipedia [1] India is the most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent. The total number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652. Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others. Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population. A country having this wide a spectrum of religions will obviously have its own share of minor clashes between the religions. But, in spite of these differences, we were one nation, one country, one INDIA. But off late, personal interests of these religious groups have substantially taken over the broader interests of the country. It is the age of “Survival of the fittest” [2], and in our country, survival of the fittest it is. Picture this, a traditional farmer, cannot take up a job as a laborer in spite of he not possessing any arable land. The reason – he belongs to the “group of farmers”, how dare he think of changing his profession? A bright young student is shooed away from a city where he has come to pursue his higher education. The reason – he belongs to a different region in India, how dare he think of relocating to a region that belongs to the locals?
We can’t blame our politicians and leaders for the sorry state of the country today. It is, we who have elected them, we, who blissfully ignored their shortcomings and we, who are fast becoming a part of this entire ideology of group-ism. If we were aware of our rights, our leaders, our laws and our constitution no person could have manipulated us to the extent that today in India we are almost at the brink of a civil war. For e.g. Article 19(1) [3] - d, e and g of the Indian constitution very rightly disproves the theory on which most of our leaders today are instigating regional imbalances. But, we are of those types of people, who like to party hard, ignorant about the situation in darker parts of the country. All we do is read the newspapers, read about the various tragic incidents in the country and shamelessly blame the government (read: politicians) for the same. We don’t realize how much strength we have as a union. The day we decide to be united and upfront about our love for the country, we will be a threat to many “developed” nations worldwide. We just lack the motivation and dedication required to do something good for the country. We just want to relax, listening to Pink Floyd play “Comfortably numb”. We don’t realize how numb we have become from inside. We want to accept things as they are. We don’t want to change!
It is time we sit up and take notice of the happenings, rather mis-happenings, around us. It is time we do much more than just sympathize. Things that are torturing your neighbor today might very soon be your plight. It is time we forget the minor differences that exist between us and come together for the greater cause. It is time we stop condescending and look at people as human beings. I know this utopian concept of unity, harmony and peace is easier said than done. But, in times of crisis situations like these, when the very safety of our motherland is at stake, when the internal enemies of our country outnumber the external ones, when peace and tranquility become extinct words, it is worth expending our efforts to bring about a very small change. It is time we all dig back into those school textbooks of ours and re-read the very pledge we solemnly agreed to fulfill everyday in our childhood. It is time we remember, “UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL”
[1] – www.wikipedia.org - Wikipedia is a free, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites) and encyclopedia.
[2] – Survival of the fittest – It is the rat race between individuals or groups forever competing with each other in order to outdo the other. It is with reference to the actual “Survival of the Fittest” concept, proposed by Charles Darwin in his “Theory of Evolution”.
[3] - Article 19(1) - http://indiacode.nic.in/coiweb/fullact1.asp?tfnm=00%2022
Monday, February 23, 2009
"PUN"E INTENDED!!
10.30 pm, Tuesday, 24/02/2009 -
With a thumb in the air pointing towards PUNE and my fists clenched firmly, I hopelessly watched as each and every vehicle blissfully avoided me. Any thoughts of returning back home could not be entertained, because going to the other side of the road and pointing towards MUMBAI wouldn't help. Its not that you get stranded at the MUMBAI-PUNE expressway everyday at 10.30 in the night you know.
Well, the day had begun quite normally with me going to the college in the morning and after finishing up with work rushing back home to catch the 4.30 bus to pune. I had my interview scheduled in an MBA college the next day! The moment I reached home, I realised that I had forgotten to take an oh-so important printout which was to be submitted the next day! I finished my packing quickly, took the printout, withdrew some money from the ATM and reached the place by 4.20!
4.25 - No sign of the bus!
4.30 - No sign of the bus!
4.35 - Finally a volvo bus arrives, not mine though!
4.40 - Still no f***ing sign of the bus!
4.45 - I think of calling up the concerned person and abusing him with the dirtiest expletives!
4.50 - I finally call up, with my temper raising ( I hate it when people turn up late)
Me - Hello?
Fellow - Hallu?
Me - Vijay bol rahe ho kya?
Fellow - Haan, kaun?
Me (with extreme mildness, angry someone?) - Bhaisaab, aap ab tak pahuche nahi? Kya huaa? Mein national park ke idhar khada hun, kahaan ho AAP?
Fellow - Arre aa rahaan hai na, baba! 5-10 min mein pahuchta hun!!
Me - Theek hai, aaraam se!!
5.00 - 10 mins over, where is he?
5.15 - Finally my beloved bus arrives!!
Then this vijay guy takes approximately 2 hrs just to reach vashi from borivali ( He stopped at each and every corner on the road and shouted "PUNE, PUNE". I was travelling in a Volvo bus....really!!) and by the time we left mumbai, it was past 7.30!! On top of that, this guy had the guts to take a dinner-break at around 9.00 pm for about 20 minutes! And finally, at around 10.30 pm somewhere near the talegaon checknaka the bus had the guts to conk off!! I got down from the bus, frustated, and thought maybe I could reach pune faster by asking for a lift!! So, after unsuccessfully trying for, say around 10-15 minutes, I was finally able to stop a car(You don't need to be a girl, to do that you know!). The driver of the car, after several negotiations agreed to drop me off at pune for 100 rs. :((
This fellow then dropped me to some unknown location named shivaji nagar in pune!! It was about 11.30 in the night!! I called up my friend, told him about my whereabouts and pleaded him to come and pick me up!! He arrived 20 minutes later and took me to McDonald's for dinner. Wow!! A place I have never been before!! (Being Sarcastic!!) After having a couple of burgers and a regular serving of french fries ( Ya, I eat a lot!!!) we finally headed home! We reached his place by 12.30 in the night, and by 12.40 I was fast asleep!!
5.30 am, Wednesday, 25/02/2009
Tringggggggggggg!! The alarm bell rings and I get up!! I took a look at my watch and heaved a sigh of relief! I had ample time to get ready! Got up to carry on with my morning ablutions, brushed my teeth, shaved my beard and then desperately tried to wake my friend up. I didn't know how to operate the lame water heater he had in his house!! He gave me standard instructions, still half asleep! I swear, I did all that he told me to. After waiting for about 15 minutes, I touched the water, it was DEAD COLD!! Waited for ten more minutes, STILL DEAD COLD!! Assuming that something is wrong with the heater, I had my bath with the freaking cold water at 6.30 am in the morning in pune with the temperature being not more than 15 degree Celsius!! I came out of the bathroom freezing, desperate to get into my clothes. I got ready, kicked my friend to wake him up, and left for the MBA college with him on his bike! Reached the MBA college at around 7.20 where a bus was waiting to take us to the new campus of the college which is a good 45 minutes away from the city!! The new campus was at a breath taking location with a mind boggling infrastructure.
**For the entire experience in the MBA college, please search for my post in www.pagalguy.com. I can't risk boring you with so many details at the same time!!**
On our way back to the city in the college bus, the smart ass in me got a new idea. I thought, that the bus I intend to catch would obviously pass through the mumbai-pune expressway, why not get down at the highway itself and catch the bus then and there. Brilliant isn't it? I, so happy with my brilliant plan, had my lunch at a roadside dhaba ( yummy food, the place is called vir-da-dhaba, its near a big toyota ka showroom) and waited for a bus to arrive, with my thumb pointing towards Mumbai this time around................................for an entire hour!!
When finally a bus came, it was an S.T bus, which I arrogantly avoided, waiting for a volvo! At around 5 pm, when I ran out of patience I caught an S.T bus( YAAY!!), which was not going to drop me at borivli, but at dadar!! What luck!! Some random thoughts during the journey -
1) From CAT to MICAT!!
The title looks like a straight lift from a recent bollywood movie. Can't help it, am still reeling under the effects of the "Slumdog" Oscars!! Well, my season of writing management entrance exams started on the 16th of November, 2008! It was my first proper season, if I can call it so. I hope this is my last season too! Well the entire journey of writing these tests, was excruciating, if nothing else! It started of with CAT, followed by IIFT, JMET, SNAP, NMAT, XAT, FMS, MAT, CET and finally MICAT!! All in all quite a satisfying season!!
2) The WHITE TIGER!!
Was reading this book during the entire journey (well, almost the entire journey.... when not thinking of the above point!!). Quite an engrossing book!! A recommended read from my side!!
3) Flashbacks of a fool!!
Not the movie, but I was actually thinking about the entire journey I had, and the WRONG choices I made. Quite an adventurous trip though!!
4) ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!
Yes, I suffer from road sickness. So, I try to sleep through my entire journey, unless reading a book!! But, sometimes the churning of my stomach gets the better of me, and I end up ditching the book for a quick nap!!
I finally reached Dadar at around 8.30pm, caught a train for borivli. The train was so crowded, with people hanging for their lives, that I almost jumped off it! Reached home by around 9.30!! By 9.45.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! HOME SWEET HOME!!
RAJ!
P.S - If you find this post too long, boring, childish or whatever epithet you can think off, I don't care!! I liked MY trip, this is MY blog, where I can write anything that I like!! :P!!!!
P.P.S - Do, go to vir-da-dhaba....awesome food!!
P.P.P.S - Nothing, Just wanted to say bye!! :D!!
With a thumb in the air pointing towards PUNE and my fists clenched firmly, I hopelessly watched as each and every vehicle blissfully avoided me. Any thoughts of returning back home could not be entertained, because going to the other side of the road and pointing towards MUMBAI wouldn't help. Its not that you get stranded at the MUMBAI-PUNE expressway everyday at 10.30 in the night you know.
Well, the day had begun quite normally with me going to the college in the morning and after finishing up with work rushing back home to catch the 4.30 bus to pune. I had my interview scheduled in an MBA college the next day! The moment I reached home, I realised that I had forgotten to take an oh-so important printout which was to be submitted the next day! I finished my packing quickly, took the printout, withdrew some money from the ATM and reached the place by 4.20!
4.25 - No sign of the bus!
4.30 - No sign of the bus!
4.35 - Finally a volvo bus arrives, not mine though!
4.40 - Still no f***ing sign of the bus!
4.45 - I think of calling up the concerned person and abusing him with the dirtiest expletives!
4.50 - I finally call up, with my temper raising ( I hate it when people turn up late)
Me - Hello?
Fellow - Hallu?
Me - Vijay bol rahe ho kya?
Fellow - Haan, kaun?
Me (with extreme mildness, angry someone?) - Bhaisaab, aap ab tak pahuche nahi? Kya huaa? Mein national park ke idhar khada hun, kahaan ho AAP?
Fellow - Arre aa rahaan hai na, baba! 5-10 min mein pahuchta hun!!
Me - Theek hai, aaraam se!!
5.00 - 10 mins over, where is he?
5.15 - Finally my beloved bus arrives!!
Then this vijay guy takes approximately 2 hrs just to reach vashi from borivali ( He stopped at each and every corner on the road and shouted "PUNE, PUNE". I was travelling in a Volvo bus....really!!) and by the time we left mumbai, it was past 7.30!! On top of that, this guy had the guts to take a dinner-break at around 9.00 pm for about 20 minutes! And finally, at around 10.30 pm somewhere near the talegaon checknaka the bus had the guts to conk off!! I got down from the bus, frustated, and thought maybe I could reach pune faster by asking for a lift!! So, after unsuccessfully trying for, say around 10-15 minutes, I was finally able to stop a car(You don't need to be a girl, to do that you know!). The driver of the car, after several negotiations agreed to drop me off at pune for 100 rs. :((
This fellow then dropped me to some unknown location named shivaji nagar in pune!! It was about 11.30 in the night!! I called up my friend, told him about my whereabouts and pleaded him to come and pick me up!! He arrived 20 minutes later and took me to McDonald's for dinner. Wow!! A place I have never been before!! (Being Sarcastic!!) After having a couple of burgers and a regular serving of french fries ( Ya, I eat a lot!!!) we finally headed home! We reached his place by 12.30 in the night, and by 12.40 I was fast asleep!!
5.30 am, Wednesday, 25/02/2009
Tringggggggggggg!! The alarm bell rings and I get up!! I took a look at my watch and heaved a sigh of relief! I had ample time to get ready! Got up to carry on with my morning ablutions, brushed my teeth, shaved my beard and then desperately tried to wake my friend up. I didn't know how to operate the lame water heater he had in his house!! He gave me standard instructions, still half asleep! I swear, I did all that he told me to. After waiting for about 15 minutes, I touched the water, it was DEAD COLD!! Waited for ten more minutes, STILL DEAD COLD!! Assuming that something is wrong with the heater, I had my bath with the freaking cold water at 6.30 am in the morning in pune with the temperature being not more than 15 degree Celsius!! I came out of the bathroom freezing, desperate to get into my clothes. I got ready, kicked my friend to wake him up, and left for the MBA college with him on his bike! Reached the MBA college at around 7.20 where a bus was waiting to take us to the new campus of the college which is a good 45 minutes away from the city!! The new campus was at a breath taking location with a mind boggling infrastructure.
**For the entire experience in the MBA college, please search for my post in www.pagalguy.com. I can't risk boring you with so many details at the same time!!**
On our way back to the city in the college bus, the smart ass in me got a new idea. I thought, that the bus I intend to catch would obviously pass through the mumbai-pune expressway, why not get down at the highway itself and catch the bus then and there. Brilliant isn't it? I, so happy with my brilliant plan, had my lunch at a roadside dhaba ( yummy food, the place is called vir-da-dhaba, its near a big toyota ka showroom) and waited for a bus to arrive, with my thumb pointing towards Mumbai this time around................................for an entire hour!!
When finally a bus came, it was an S.T bus, which I arrogantly avoided, waiting for a volvo! At around 5 pm, when I ran out of patience I caught an S.T bus( YAAY!!), which was not going to drop me at borivli, but at dadar!! What luck!! Some random thoughts during the journey -
1) From CAT to MICAT!!
The title looks like a straight lift from a recent bollywood movie. Can't help it, am still reeling under the effects of the "Slumdog" Oscars!! Well, my season of writing management entrance exams started on the 16th of November, 2008! It was my first proper season, if I can call it so. I hope this is my last season too! Well the entire journey of writing these tests, was excruciating, if nothing else! It started of with CAT, followed by IIFT, JMET, SNAP, NMAT, XAT, FMS, MAT, CET and finally MICAT!! All in all quite a satisfying season!!
2) The WHITE TIGER!!
Was reading this book during the entire journey (well, almost the entire journey.... when not thinking of the above point!!). Quite an engrossing book!! A recommended read from my side!!
3) Flashbacks of a fool!!
Not the movie, but I was actually thinking about the entire journey I had, and the WRONG choices I made. Quite an adventurous trip though!!
4) ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!
Yes, I suffer from road sickness. So, I try to sleep through my entire journey, unless reading a book!! But, sometimes the churning of my stomach gets the better of me, and I end up ditching the book for a quick nap!!
I finally reached Dadar at around 8.30pm, caught a train for borivli. The train was so crowded, with people hanging for their lives, that I almost jumped off it! Reached home by around 9.30!! By 9.45.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! HOME SWEET HOME!!
RAJ!
P.S - If you find this post too long, boring, childish or whatever epithet you can think off, I don't care!! I liked MY trip, this is MY blog, where I can write anything that I like!! :P!!!!
P.P.S - Do, go to vir-da-dhaba....awesome food!!
P.P.P.S - Nothing, Just wanted to say bye!! :D!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
I am what I am!
Well, well, well......its been agesssssssssssss since I last updated my blog and posted an entry, I have been busy and how!! Well a quick update on what I was upto this last six months, took up a job as a lecturer in my own college ( not the boring types thou!), gave CAT and many, many of its clones, got a few calls, and have been preparing for them ever since!!
For the past six months, all that I could think of was an MBA.....nightmares, dreams, day-dreams et al. A recent study says that men think about women and sex once in every seven seconds. My analysis of the MBA preps say that an MBA aspirant thinks about Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation once in every 3 seconds. That leaves out no time for any other malicious thoughts. To prove my point let me give a small list of the blog entries that I thought of, started and left midway.
In chronological order!!
1) And thus raj shrugged!!
2) When private is no longer PRIVATE!!
3) A corrupt mind is an Indian's workshop!!
4) Back from the hiatus....
Don't worry, you will never get to see the final copy!! Jokes apart, The past six months have taught me a lot, not only in terms of the knowledge I gained, but also in terms of knowing ME and my country!! When I had gone for my first ever GD/PI session (Group Discussion/Personal Interview for the unknown)...ARKS sir told us to learn a lot about many things. But, he said three things were of prime importance.....I, INDIA and the link between the two!! Learning and gaining knowledge about the country was not difficult, Google is a never ending resource with information being made available to you at lightning speed. Then came the difficult part, knowing myself.
"We are all primary numbers divisible only by ourselves" ~ Jean Guitton
I started off by listing things that are commonly known to everyone. Name, Background, College, Family, DOB.....i.e whatever my profile on Orkut/Facebook says! But these are stuff that everyone knows, I needed to research a lot on "ME". Slowly and steadily I sat down to make a chronological list of the events/happenings in my life. Then how has those events affected me as a person was next in the list. I was overwhelmed at the fact, that, there were so many things about me that I had blissfully ignored. And when I came down to link my life to the knowledge I had gained about India, I came to know one very important fact. My contribution to the country, or its progress is nothing but..............ZILCH!!
The preparations for MBA has had its bearing on me. I have started behaving as if, finance and economics was something I was ingrained with right from schooling. Take this incident for example...I was walking with a friend of mine. A house maid was walking towards us, she was using a high end mobile phone. My friend told me that the kaamwaali baai has a better phone than what we use. And all I could think was the TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT!! Now if I would have been my usual self, I would have just cursed my luck for not having a better phone, but the new MBA guy in me makes me think stuff that I could have scarcely imagined earlier. And the worst part is that at times I get into a state of soliloquy and people think that I am either crazy or divine!!
All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why.
~James Thurber
On this note I bid goodbye, as I have a lot more to learn about economics, marketing, my acads, my country and most importantly..ME!! I AM WHAT I AM!!
For the past six months, all that I could think of was an MBA.....nightmares, dreams, day-dreams et al. A recent study says that men think about women and sex once in every seven seconds. My analysis of the MBA preps say that an MBA aspirant thinks about Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability and Data Interpretation once in every 3 seconds. That leaves out no time for any other malicious thoughts. To prove my point let me give a small list of the blog entries that I thought of, started and left midway.
In chronological order!!
1) And thus raj shrugged!!
2) When private is no longer PRIVATE!!
3) A corrupt mind is an Indian's workshop!!
4) Back from the hiatus....
Don't worry, you will never get to see the final copy!! Jokes apart, The past six months have taught me a lot, not only in terms of the knowledge I gained, but also in terms of knowing ME and my country!! When I had gone for my first ever GD/PI session (Group Discussion/Personal Interview for the unknown)...ARKS sir told us to learn a lot about many things. But, he said three things were of prime importance.....I, INDIA and the link between the two!! Learning and gaining knowledge about the country was not difficult, Google is a never ending resource with information being made available to you at lightning speed. Then came the difficult part, knowing myself.
"We are all primary numbers divisible only by ourselves" ~ Jean Guitton
I started off by listing things that are commonly known to everyone. Name, Background, College, Family, DOB.....i.e whatever my profile on Orkut/Facebook says! But these are stuff that everyone knows, I needed to research a lot on "ME". Slowly and steadily I sat down to make a chronological list of the events/happenings in my life. Then how has those events affected me as a person was next in the list. I was overwhelmed at the fact, that, there were so many things about me that I had blissfully ignored. And when I came down to link my life to the knowledge I had gained about India, I came to know one very important fact. My contribution to the country, or its progress is nothing but..............ZILCH!!
The preparations for MBA has had its bearing on me. I have started behaving as if, finance and economics was something I was ingrained with right from schooling. Take this incident for example...I was walking with a friend of mine. A house maid was walking towards us, she was using a high end mobile phone. My friend told me that the kaamwaali baai has a better phone than what we use. And all I could think was the TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT!! Now if I would have been my usual self, I would have just cursed my luck for not having a better phone, but the new MBA guy in me makes me think stuff that I could have scarcely imagined earlier. And the worst part is that at times I get into a state of soliloquy and people think that I am either crazy or divine!!
All men should strive
to learn before they die
what they are running from, and to, and why.
~James Thurber
On this note I bid goodbye, as I have a lot more to learn about economics, marketing, my acads, my country and most importantly..ME!! I AM WHAT I AM!!
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