My truth

“Fear can set you prisoner, hope can set you free.” Shawshank Redemption

I believe to the core of my heart with the first part of the above line. With fear residing in the mind, I can start to feel weak and powerless. I can feel my life going out of my hand. It feels that I am a victim of circumstances. If I were to argue ...... is it the way we are supposed to live. The prompt answer is no; not even for a moment i want to live so miserably. Then what do i do wen im confronted with an event in my life or a circumstances that pushes me to the back of the wall.
Here comes the relevance of the second part of the line. Hope can set me free. To me hope means a wish. I would feel like a kid who wants and wishes to have beautiful things in its surrounding. But the kid is rarely able to get them on its own except if there is a permission from the guardian. Do i want to feel like that. No that does not give me a bit of confidence and power. Here I would mention the below line...............

“Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” Shawshank Redemption

A wishing without the confidence and power can drive me insane as any body else. Then what do i do. I set my believe in the theory of karma. I know that nothing wrong can happen to me provided I am not at the wrong side of the line. This statement comes from the belief and confidence in the univeral law of nature, that everything has to be in an equilibrim. with this belief and not hope, i carry myself from the moment i open my eyes in the morning to the moment i have them closed to back into the hands of my beloved krishna. I tell u that even if smthing wrong has happened at ur hands, keep ur intentions good ............ u ll not suffer much. I dont know how changes will come in my life but i know they will come and im ready to embrace them.

I may not be in the best phase of my life but i know that it is about to come. this is the motto of my life for i always feel it...........and i know the feeling will remain the same till i close my eyes never to open them again amongst my beautiful friends here.

Concern for my friends fighting out there

The Reservation Rhetoric

My Thoughts after some reflection

The basic need and the right of a human being is to live with dignity. To achieve this one requires is the self esteem and the confidence in one's own capabilities. The basic logic behind any affirmative action is to build capabilities which in turn provide the self esteem. The whole following article is built from this perspective.The need; yes there is a need for affirmative action in the country becoz still a large part of our indian brethren are living under the beseige of social discrimination. A number of incidents that have occured, ranging from hinterlands of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to urban echelons of Mumbai and other towns, remind us of the line that still exists. The number is a huge figure that reminds us of the failure to integrate our lost brohters in our homes.Why there is a need? because the government and its instruments have failed to penetrate to reach to the depth of the problem. Now the question arises, what are those instruments and why have the failed? I shall try to list down the instruments and the reasons. These may not be exhaustive; this is where your inputs will be required.

The policy of reservations:

This is one of the quick ways to provide a person with oppportunity to build capacity and abilities in himself. The person is brought into an environment, a competitive one; and left alone to competite and build something which he has not learnt till now. One of the many scenarios that arise is the person gets disillusioned as he is not able to make progress and wastes the opportunity. I agree the person is not much at fault. Some actually get through the process with flying colors and put good value to their opportunity. But many of them are still not able to enhance their self esteem as they consistently underperform in comparison to their peers, who have come through much rigorous process. Yes, this policy did give them the opportunity and did increase their abilities. But it fails in increasing their self esteem; the basic premise of our argument. Some of the other observed faults with this policy are repeated availing of the reservation by subsequent generations, using the provision in subsequent and further education and misuse of the clause by making false certificates.

The economic support and support in form of other resources:

The government provides resources in terms of money, free books, subsidy in education fees and others. The government has direct control over government schools. Everyone knows the condition and the quality of education provided by these schools. Therefore this instrument is blunted and cannot be used by the government. To make changes at this level the monkey in the cabinet will have to do a lot of hard work apart from just making proposals and passing a bill. Mind you, only students from economically weaker background study here. The truth is a majority of these also belong to socially weaker backgrounds. But nobody here is even considerate about the status of an economically weaker higher caste child because some of ancestors may have enjoyed some privileges. The children of economically strong socially backwards study in the likes of DPS and Modern. Primary education is an instrument that can most effectively build the capabilities an the self esteem, but how much do we see is happening here. I have a story to narrate for the case where the govt provides monetary support. Many of u must have seen the Office Office TV serial (by Pankaj Kapur) on the SAB TV. His plight was like that of the protagonist, to receive the money required to fund his tuition fees. All this only highlight the failure of the government on different fronts.

Im not against any affirmative actions for the economically and socially underprivileged; but im not convinced by the instruments that the government plans to use to attain its objective, Because our experience of almost 55 odd years suggest that the policy of reservations has failed.
On one front we had a government (the last one) that wanted the review of this policy and here is one which wants to continue with the same. It is high time that the government takes up the responsibility for its actions towards all the sections of the society.

Our struggle must not only be to oppose the present status but to give an alternative status also. So please think on this front also and come up with ur suggestions.

The Chennai Chapter IIM A alum meet

On the 6 th may there was this IIM A alum meet at the Taj Coromandel in chennai. We as interns were invited to this meet. The guest speaker was Mr. Seshasayee, who is th e CEO of Ashol Leyland.
He presented an interesting talk on a number of topics like water conservation, enterprise creation, affirmative action and the development of India. His talk was supported by a strong logic.
It was a good evening to spend with a number of old alumni of the institute. A strong feeling of unison was felt amongst all the old and the new students of IIM A when the video on the institute was played. it is an ossum video, brainchild of my 3 batchmates with the support of the alumni cell. It was good to meet the alum and refreshing to see some of my own batchmates and my tuchchas.
This evening was even more spiced up on seeing aishwarya rai, who was in the hotel. she is a remarkable beauty. But the better part was the discussion thereafter with auntie, bushie, anshul and aman.
The chapter by then had really closed for the evening.

Paradise in Pondy

Next we headed to the Cuddalore road to do boating at a place which was around 8 km from pondy. I can't recall the name of the place now. We had choices of three types of boating to do. Trying to justify one's choices we started with paddle boating and then took speed boating and ended up with motor boating. The beast thing about the place is that around 1 km into the water there is yet another beach called as the paradise beach which is surrounded by water on atleast three sides. Here we had the best swimming and playing with water experience. It is a very good place to visit and spend around 2 hours. The crowd here is mostly the tourists who get enchanted with the beaches of the south.
Oue next destination after freshening up was the bus stand to catch the earliest possible bus to Chennai. But this was not the case. We could only get the tickets reserved for a bus scheduled at 8.35 pm whereas we had rached bus stand at 5 pm that too after checking out. Therefore we headed again to the rock beach. This time we spent an evening with beach lying on the rocks. Yes, that is how I would describe my experience. I laid on the rocks and read through one of the compilation on Aurobindo's works. Along with this I reflected on my life and my purpose. Things could not have got better as this continued till it got dark and it was time to get some food and shoot off for the bus stand. This time Aman wanted to dine at Promenade's and so I wished, but the lack of money after spending a heavy portion on autowallahs made us to go back after we had confirmed about the cuisine from the waiter.
Anyways time had come to go back. Now Im here in Chennai writing about my beautiful experience in Pondicherry a.k.a. pondy.

pondicherry continued...........

after the Auroville beach it was another beach. This time it was another kind of beach; the main beach of pondy or the rock beach as it is famously called. This time the plan was different i.e. to take beer to the beach. This is a stretch of sea shore that goes along the main road and overlooks the buildings like the chief secretariat, the famous promenades hotel and other plush hotels in pondicherry. The port also is situated along this coast line.
After freshening up and having a good dinner we hit the beach at around 10.30 pm. We had thought the beach to be a lonely place but the scene took us by surprise as there were a lot of vagabonds like us. I think most of them had hit pondy to spend the weekend. The task now was to find a lonely place where we could enjoy the sound of sea thrashing at the rocks with sips of chilled beer and a cool nightly breeze hitting us. We found such a place near to where the waves hit the coast line such that we should be drenched. Then the next 2 hours went by reminiscing old memories, future plans and ambitions with a taste of beer and the smooth touch of breeze. No wonder I had started to feel overwhelmed by the experience. Then we decided to move to the hotel but still wanted more of the orgasm with the nature for I was not feeling satisfied. Hence we decided to get back to sojourn in the morning.
We would have slept by 1.00 am but still got up by 5 am in the morning. We walked down to teh same beach amidst a closed bazaar; that last night had been gurgling with the noise and chaos of the tourists and the shopkeepers. This time there was no beer or smoke but only patience to wait for a beautiful sunrise from the blanket of vast Bay of Bengal. We strolled along the coastline while I kept on looking at the sky waiting for the sun. We walked to the port and from there little into the sea on a wooden bridge (cannot get the right nomenclature). There we sat lookin at the sunrise till we really started to feel the heat. Then it was time back to the hotel.
Our next destination was to visit the Aurobindo ashram. The ashram opens at 8 am and in a very discipline manner allows the visitor's in. We reached the place 2 min before the scheduled time and gained entry as the very first few. The ashram is a very quiet and peaceful place and smells inside of the aroma from very fine agarbattis. We paid our obeisance at the samadhi and sat amongst the satsang (this is a punjabi word meant to denote similar gatherings). The next 20 min were very quite and peaceful. In such an atmosphere one cannot resist meditating. In the ashram the next part to visit is the book room where compilation of Aurobindo's and mother's work is available under several topics. These compilations are sold to the public for a very nominal amount. I purchased few books which caught my interest. Then there is a section which displays pictures of the two saints during the course of their journey through life. This was the end of our vist at the ashram. Since 1st may was a public holiday we missed visiting different small organizations set up the the ashram for different purposes.......................

A short and a beautiful trip

I have been longing to go to pondicherry (or pondy; that is how it is famously called) ever since I saw the movie "Jism". I dont if it was pondy or I was expecting to find a bipasha there. And here came the opportunity with a 3 day holiday from 29th April to 1st may which I grabbed.
The best way to go pondy is by bikes. The road transport is and any other public transport is poor. This is my view; made from the observation of the condition of the buses and by the number passengers exceeded the seats. This could be due to the going holidays also. Anyways ill keep the cribbing for later. Pondy is around 140 km from Chennai and it takes around 3 hrs and 30 mins to travel on one side.
The weather is similar to that of the Chennai. During this period of the year, it is hot and humid both in Chennai and pondy. One can imagine if he/she has to go in this weather in a crowded bus and which itself should be around 20 years old.
In Pondy, there are things like Auroville beach, rock beach, Aurobindo ashram and their different work areas, a boating club and paradise beach that are worth spending time on. The Auroville beach is good for swimming and also for simply strolling along. As at many other places on this beach also there are areas reserved for the Aurovilleans who have special passes and the other area for the commoners. I did not have the special pass and therefore the many special Aurovilleans missed my esteemed company. It was fun being with Aman and Sumit on the beach trying to fight out with waves and at the same time searching for soem good chicks. It got dark very soon and the stroll along the beach with breeze flowing and a smoke in the hand; as the evening progressed the pleasure on the beach grew.............................

My expeditions from Chennai

I am writing after a very long time. Its been around one and a half month since I have written. I am now in Chennai currently pursuing my summer internship with IREVNA research solutions limited.
I have had some good and some bad experiences here though the good have by far outnumbered the bad. The bad experience I believe one encounters only when one has to interact with people like auto wallahs, bus conductors and the like. I think these people are under considerable stress from the workings of a metro or it is a result of an ultra competitive place.
I have to first tell good things about here brfore I start cribbing about anything. I start this with my trip to Pondicherry.