prashant agarwal

Love in the Time of Cholera

2014-06-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

Review of Love in the Time of Cholera

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Lot of books have passed through these eyes however this book was different not because I have heard a lot about this author but may be because the way it is written, the way in which this book leaves you guessing or asking for more!

This book was different because while it was a simple love story but it kept me feeling ‘What was the reason for their separation’ or ‘Is love lies truly between the two lovers’.

This book was different because while you feel sad for the protagonist that he kept waiting for his love for his entire life but then somewhere you also feel that he enjoyed his life and despite the loss of his true love he had an ample amount of love in his life.

I may not read this love story again however it gave me a different perspective from just dying for the lover’s sake or turning into a monk for their lover to be someone who lives his life fully and still hopes for his lover to come back.

I still may not be able to express my views about this book however I do concur with one view of Observer i.e. “It suggests that true love is not blind, but sees all the faults and does not mind” What a powerful statement and how much it differs from all the other love stories…

I still don’t know which stories to believe where love is the ultimate or this particular ‘Love in the time of Cholera’, which suggests life, is the ultimate aim of every person.

For me personally, this was a practical guide & an inspiration for the millions of lovers who are not meant to meet.

What really matters to me “Is to see a world free from unbiased constraints.”

2013-07-26T05:29:00.000-07:00

What really matters to me is to bring a smile on every child face and to provide them the same avenues, which each and every kid deserves.

What I mean by the above statement is ‘In our country where still one third of the kids are out of school, whereas a 4^th standard student in a government school can’t read a text of 2^nd grade and 60% of second year children are unable to read a simple paragraph, and 70% cannot perform simple mathematical tasks such as long division’ we today have to think carefully about the education and how we aim to target this mammoth issue and for this our youth has to come forward and take the lead to change and make the world a better place to live.

Also I don’t belong to a family of teachers or principals and neither my parents ever dreamt this career avenue for me, but I would say it was the stark reality which struck me while I was in college enjoying my life to the fullest but knowing of some gap being existing.

Let me briefly tell you about my journey and what makes me so much passionate about education.

One day I was sitting with bunch of my friends in the cafeteria having a normal conversation when the ‘Bhola came to serve us the tea’ .I randomly asked him how much he studied, he replied “Bhaya till 7^thStandard “ and out of no where I asked him a simple multiplication and he couldn’t answer, Further moving ahead I asked him to read a simple paragraph which he couldn’t do. It really left me perplexed that if a kid studying in 7^th standard, living in the heart of India and residing next to the best engineering college can’t do a simple mathematics and reading while in 7^th what’s really is the future of this kid, our country and what are we the youth doing about this? Except criticizing the government for sure….

My friends and I decided to go to the bottom of the root and resolve this issue. With firm determination we went to his school where for the 1^st time we saw a class being run by a 8^th standard student and on asking him about the teacher he said “Masterji 8 din ki chutti pe hain”(Teacher is on a 8 day vacation).

While we tried our best to talk to the principal of the school, however she just refused to talk and brushed us aside giving an excuse that’s it’s not as easy to run a school with so many kids.

Later that day, we discussed this issue with our professor and while he was pleased to see our cognizant of what’s happening around ourselves but he made a comment that “While everyone of you has seen the dark side of India but no one is willing to change it or amend it for the better, everyone today is just thinking about himself rather than the society”

Which really made me ponder on his words and with few more friends we started a project in our college by the name “sapney” which basically was the evening classes being run by engineering college students in the engineering college.

The model was quite simple: -

1. We wanted to cover the basic arithmetic, reading, science and speaking

2. The school would be open for 2 hours and everyone who is interested in learning would be welcome.

3. We would make use of technology as much as we can to make the lesson interesting and easy to understand for them.

We ran that model for one year. While the response was good however we realized that we were not getting the results we had expected and that’s when I thought to take advice of the experts or people who have given their life for the educational cause.

Moving forward on my journey, I started talking more and more to my professors about the project sapney and how we are lacking in the results and one of them connected me to a person called ‘Deep Joshi’ who runs ‘Pradan’ an NGO and asked me to work for him during my internship and he is a really kind person who promised to help me and gave me an internship at kesla, Madhya Pradesh and there I found people aged 22-24 years and who has never seen a school in their life and who doesn’t know the basic alphabets or the numerals.

For the 1^st time I realized how tilting the world is, we make lot of policies at the centre level however the people who should be it’s biggest beneficiary, never come to know about it and the more I thought about it the more I realized that most of the problems are connected and then I started talking with people and realized the crux of most of the problems is the education and if we can resolve this issue we can surely be on a better footing.

So, I decided to work for time being in the education sector and I started working on business plans to create the school I envision and everyone whom I met told me to 1^st research more than just jumping into this education puzzle.

And that’s when the Teach For India happened for me and it was really one of the roller coaster ride, which I enjoyed, with my both hands held free. I taught 74 kids of 2^nd Grade in my 1^st year and then I taught 64 kids of 4^th grade in my 2^nd year and that’s where I found my three biggest learning of failing in ‘Sapney’.

1. The value of differentiation i.e. why I shouldn’t have catered to all the age groups together.

2. Assessment: - While It was a thoughtful idea to keep the assessment out of our ‘sapney’ model but Teach For India taught me that there has to be some form of assessment to know your impact.

3. Holistic Education: - I was just focused on the academics but now I realized how mistaken I was because in the 21^st century more than the academics it’s the life skills i.e. Creativity, Leadership which we are required to teach to our kids.

My fellowship got over, but not my journey, which has given me hope of a new dawn, a new dawn where everybody would be able to access the basic facilities and no one would be deprived of the education and his rights.

After my fellowship completed, I have joined an NGO called S.T.I.R. whereby I have to recognize the teachers who are doing great work in their classroom and who are striving hard to transform their classrooms.

I try to work with them to resolve the problems they are facing in their classrooms and also try to make them realize how important work they are doing by being a teacher.

Moving forward, this year I am planning to open the community centres in my networks with three basic aims: -

1. Anyone can come to these centres (i.e. irrespective of their caste, creed, economic strata etc.) however they would be differentiated on the basis of their age group.

2. Their won’t be any restriction on what a student should be doing over there i.e. it’s his/her wish to play, jump, shout or study but there would be few guidelines. No fights, no stealing, no abuse etc. (which I am sure they won’t be doing once they would be in community centres)

3. Connecting the elders to these kids because I truly believe that somehow we have started losing the wisdom of our elders and they have a lot to provide to these kids, so if we can connect these kids to them we can really provide the valuable education, which we all dream, for these kids.

So, I will end by saying that what really matters to me is to provide a better place to live in for my kids and to make that happen I have to change the surrounding .I have to work on the society and the mind-set with which people strive today and that all can be done only when we offer the dignity of a human being back to every people. It will only happen if we make them aware of their rights and duties.

And, all of this would happen if we give back the childhood to the kids who are right now begging on the road, who are sitting on railways with their brother in hands or moving out when their parents for work every day.

And the solution which I can conceive of it is education “a Quality education for each and every kid despite it’s background because at the last it’s not his fault and he shouldn’t be paying for whole his life for what isn’t his fault at the first point”.

A discussion on women Empowerment

2013-04-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

Something’s are just destined to happen, so was the lecture I attended last year. I visited one great school and wished to sit in their classroom and luckily I sat in an English class whereby they were discussing the Arunudhi Roy ‘The God of small things’ and as this novel is based on women empowerment, the discussion shifted in that direction.

It was a smooth and a very nice discussion but not what I anticipated as it was without any boundary, the teacher was just there to refine their thoughts but at no point she blocked them and they were free to express their thoughts in any language they wanted to.

However, the best part was the discussion that was happening in that class and I would try to ponder as much thoughts as I can over it.

So, it started the way a discussion started with the teacher raising her views stating that there are movements like ‘Take back the night’ which makes women feel empowered and reinforces the support and tragedy which still lies in our world.

But, it was interesting to see a kid refuting the discussion saying but what does these movements serves, as it happens just for a single day and for the rest 364 days the life moves as normal, is it surely a solution. But then there were surely points in favor of this movement as they give support to the women and make them aware of the situation and prepare them to face the worst.

Then one girl raised the point that these movement do serve their purpose it’s just that they are bit slow and takes time and backs it up saying that in Delhi Metro now girls have separate compartment to travel and it is surely because some people must have realized it’s importance.

But then is it really a solution, because somehow it has separated the women from the men and it is portraying that for the women to be safe they should just separate themselves from men. Also, somehow in my personal opinion the today’s movement is more regarded as a fight between the men and the women.

Teacher, at this point didn’t agreed with me and shifted the discussion saying that still many women get rapped and the proper definition of molestation says that ‘If a person touches you without your permission aggressively’ it’s molestation .At this point, girl backed it up with some facts from UNICEF Website that states that one in every four girl get rapped in the world.

And she pointed to the girls in the class only that we can see 14 girls in this class, so according to the statistics 4 of you would be raped in the next 10 years and I can never imagine a teacher posing such a difficult question back at the students who are just in 11^th standard.

At which, a student again raised his voice that he don’t value on data as most of them are fake at which the teacher replied that these statistics are based on reported data rather than the number of cases actually happens in our country and it could be a very number as most of the women who get molested never report knowing they would be the one who would be at loss after this.

So, a boy raised his voice saying that everyone get’s molested who thinks that boys don’t get molested or abused its just that we just talk about women and have started thinking it as a weaker sex which needs protection and the women’s should make themselves strong rather than joining these movements.

At which a girl asked but how can they do that? Also, a girl from Saudi Arabia pointed out to some scary details i.e. in Saudi if a girl get raped then she get 40 lashes without ever judging whose fault is it actually? And if a girl don’t gives to the sexual demand of her husband after 4 days of getting married then her husband has legal rights to rape her? Isn’t it shocking?

At this point I thought to share my ideas and I said ‘I do know that somehow right now the society is facing a uncontrollable situation in case of women’s movement and their rights but it’s because of what we have done in the past, it is because we have stretched the pendulum to one extreme in the last 50 years and it will surely go to the other extreme before coming at the normal position.

Also, I don’t know how women can make themselves strong but I can just give my own example i.e. I have an acrophobia but then I decided that I could overcome it only by working on it so I started going on trekking and then I also started looking at people who do succeed in trekking rather than the images where I see people falling from the hills.

And I suggested them to start going alone, most of the times bad things won’t happen to you and just keep a positive mindset, if there is bad happening in the society then there is also good happening and start looking at the incidents where people are doing the good things and they all should stop reading so much of the statistics and the scary news.

At which a girl raised her concern that ‘Ignorance can never be the solution’ and I do agree with her, and now thinking more about her statement I can just say that ‘I also do know that girls get raped and people do fall from the cliff’ but should I be concerned about how many numbers fallen this month, this year etc.

Because our mind is like a notebook from which we can read only what we will write, and it’s us who have the power to decide what we want to write in it.

This is really one of the best sessions I attended on Women Empowerment and students of XI Standard were doing this. I was amazed by their openness, frankness, confidence and the belief that they are surely going to get something out of this discussion.

This is one of the best part of my job of seeing so much power in these kids and having a belief that our world is surely in safer hands however it also puts so much responsibility on our generation as still 2/3^rd of our country doesn’t understand the meaning of women empowerment or what rights do they have in this amazing country.

Do you also suffer from the same problem!

2012-11-10T10:26:00.001-08:00

You sit on your computer to do some important work, but then suddenly you think let me check the Gmail and the Facebook (who knows! There is something important waiting for me to respond to.)

You open your Gmail account first and see that’s it the same boring old mails, no bonus or nothing (while it’s Diwali time) and only your office colleague’s are online and if you said hi to anyone of them, you know they will start their stories of ‘right now also working late in night(or kaise lagi padi hain) & you close your Gmail account as fast as you opened.

Now, let’s move to the interesting stuff –Facebook and the top bar shows 1 new friend request, 3 new notifications and you get excited (Finally, she has send the friend request & now I see her beautiful pics and also see who is this ugly guy for whom she never gives you a single glance also.

And then you open the friend request and you find it’s a request from your young brother who is still in 7^th and in no way you want him to see your pics and see your wall.

Ok, life can’t be so bad and you think of checking the notifications and there you go.. One of your girlfriend is getting married and she has send you a invite to the event & you feel, fuck! Here goes another gorgeous! God please leave one for me (or you forgot to make anyone for me this time & send this fucking Facebook to let me know about it everyday.)

Second notification:- Someone has put up a Diwali greetings with hundred’s tag along with it and now whenever someone says happy Diwali ,you are notified while u have never met this person and may never meet also. But still Happy Diwali to you also…. (At this point you wish why don’t people just have one god, so that we can have only festival and all these notifications can come in one go)

Third Notification: - One of your beautiful friend has just uploaded some new pics and you forget about your important work and decide to check them out.

1^st pic: - She is looking as gorgeous as ever and you think to like the pic but 20 people have already liked it. Shit! It has been uploaded just 15 min back and it’s 11. 25 p.m., was the whole world was just waiting for her to upload the pictures.

You think no worries; you will like some shit photo of her, which no one else has liked. You check 4-8 more photographs but she is looking gorgeous in every pic (It’s definitely a true statement “Beauty is in the eye of beholder” but how the hell everyone was able to see it…(It never happens when I upload my portraits).

Then you flip some more photograps and you come across a pic of a boy kissing the girl and the whole Indian tradition comes across your eyes and you start thinking that what is happening to the whole world but after some time your senses come back and you start thinking ‘What a crap choice she has’ ‘it would have been 1000 times better if it was me…waise bhi she is not so bad’. ‘The boy must have influenced her, she can’t do this’.

And then you keep checking the picturess till they get over and then once again you check the whole album while at the same time seeing that the likes have doubled till the last time, and then you realize that you sat on computer thinking that you have some important work to do and you in quick succession close all the tabs and try to remove her thoughts from your mind.

i.e. to come back and check your email account after 15 min and then thinking ‘Chalo facebook bhi check kar lete hain, kya baat is baar uski friend request aa jaye’.

Fuck up my Indian thinking, my thoughts and this fucking Facebook notification but one thing is really sure she really is more than her beautiful face and that pic would have been thousand times better if she was with me. But then, we are not living in the ideal world and in this world only the monkeys are eating all the apples.

Disclaimer: - I was not drunk when I was writing this article and also this article is not the depiction of my frustration (May be just a concern for that sweet girl).

Hey! Also it’s not that it’s only boys who face this situation, I do know that girls also stalk boys profiles.

Hey! I have to go …May be there is something interesting notification or that girl has switched to single (This facebook just keep me on my toes every moment)

Why FDI in retail will work

2012-07-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

Evidently, there is no national consensus on allowing FDI in retail. Advocates tout it as the much-needed major policy push that could arrest the economic downturn, bring in not only foreign funds but advanced technology and expertise, create infrastructure, offer better prices to farmers, generate ancillary industries and create millions of jobs.

However, skeptics present a doomsday scenario: it will wipe out small farmers and traders, result in job losses and open the floodgates for cheap goods from countries like China, adversely impacting Indian industry.

While both arguments have some validity, the two sides err on the side of extremes. FDI in retail is not an unmitigated disaster as projected by some, nor a magic wand leading to instant economic growth. If allowed with professional circumspection and safeguards and viewed dispassionately, it is in the country's national interest to allow FDI in retail.

Opening up the telecom sector to foreign investment worked by bringing a communication revolution that embraces everyone. Similarly, foreign investment in the automobile industry ended the long wait for outdated scooters and cars and led to leading global companies vying to sell the latest models in India.

When Pizza Hut, Domino's, McDonald's, Wimpy, Burger King, KFC and other such international brands were allowed, there were orchestrated demonstration in many cities; they were painted as anti-people and anti-Indian enterprises. We were told Haldirams, Bikanerwalas, Nirulas, Nathus and their ilk will vanish.

All these Indian chains have multiplied their outlets, diversified their production line, upgraded their packing and presentation, and are doing roaring business. In fact, some of the largest MNCs like McDonald's, Pizza Hutand Domino's have been forced to Indianise their offerings. Where else in the world would you find a McDonald burger with paneer and potato patties and coriander sauce?

While many starve, millions of tonnes of grain rot for want of adequate storage facilities. Ask how farmers in Punjab feel when their produce is not picked up and lies unsold. Can they negotiate higher prices? When the mercury rises, fruit don't last more than two days.

TV channels often show how adulterated ghee, milk made out of detergent, mangoes and papayas ripened with masala, vegetables and fruit injected with dangerous concoctions are flooding the market. Who is to blame? FDI in retail?

No one should underestimate the ingenuity of ordinary hawkers and small grocery owners. They know how to reach out to their potential customers. Today, in many areas of Delhi, vegetable vendors present their carts, laden with fresh stuff straight from the farm, as early as 6:00 am.

Many joggers and walkers find it convenient to pick up their daily requirement of vegetables from these vendors. In the evening, they move near temples where devotees find it a blessing to shop for fruit and vegetables at the temple gates.

Small grocery shops realise the value of home delivery, small stores also reduce a rupee or two on most items. This demand-and-supply relationship will remain unchanged notwithstanding the entry of bigwigs like Tesco, Carrefour and Wal-Mart.

Even without FDI in retail, more than half of electronic and electrical items, machine tools, building hardware, bathroom fittings and sanitaryware, lights and chandeliers sold in India are made in China.

Why blame the US for getting its flags from China? Come Diwali, and millions of porcelain Lakshmi and Ganesh idols made in China flood local markets. You can't wish Chinese products away; there is no option but to compete with them on price and quality.

The purchasing power of different sections of Indian society is very elastic. Many relish lunch delivered in a tiffin box for Rs 50 while a buffet lunch costs around Rs 5,000 in most five-star hotels.

So, mega stores of FDI in retail can also coexist with small traders, grocery shops and corner vendors; they will attract customers from different sections, as has been the case in the restaurant business. Those raising the bogey against FDI in retail are the same persons who opposed FDI in the telecom, automobile and restaurant sectors.

The government can ensure benefits for Indian industry by making outsourcing of 35% requirements of megastores from India itself.

They can also be asked to undertake R&D for better and higher-yielding seeds, build connecting roads, set up a chain of warehouses, cold storages, food processing plants and create green belts in the vicinity of stores as also schools, hospitals, sports and recreational facilities for their employees. Anyone claiming that FDI in retail will not create jobs is being dishonest.

Source: The Economic Times

A talk which makes you question yourself

2012-07-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

Wow! My first reaction after watching this talk and I couldn’t stop myself from sharing this talk with you all.

But before I share about this talk let me ask you all few questions! Don’t you ever feel that you are here for a bigger purpose than just serving a 9-5 job? Won’t you regret your whole life if the death struck you today?

For me this talk by Elora Hardy made me ask these two basic and profound questions. While in this talk, she is talking about her life and how she is planning to give back to the society but somewhere; it would really make you think ‘What are we doing’?

In this talk she elaborates that she had always wanted to be a designer and at a very young age, she also achieved what she always wanted, but then the question struck her? And she left everything and came back to her country, Bali.

Today, she is a creative Director at IBUKU in Bali. IBUKU is a sustainable construction company, but it is surely not an ordinary sustainable company because when she decided to start this company she thought about Bali and what Bali is known for i.e. bamboo. So, IBUKU is a company, which uses only bamboo for construction. Her designs are not only creative, but also amazingly innovative.

While she has not done any course in architecture but her love for this job and her interest in this has given the whole world a new material to build houses, restaurants, schools and warehouses. She has also shown that the houses build using this bamboo are not only sustainable but also durable and beautiful.

Till now, she has designed a house and now she is working on building a completely green hotel in Bali using only the bamboo which can provide an avenue for the people to connect with nature.

She wants to do it so that she can show the world the potential of the bamboo and inspire more people to connect with the bamboo.

But what really make this talk powerful are the three ways she talks about how the human beings get evolved

The first of these is: -

Drastic change/crises, i.e. when an earthquake strikes or someone dies then your life takes a drastic different path and this type of evolution is not in anyone’s control.

Second Reason is

Shift along the society at society pace:- In this you just keep moving along the path the whole life while never achieving the satisfaction you always wanted.

And the final reason is: -

Why you are here today/ What’s get you up in the morning: - It’s about the stand you take, whether you are prepared for it or not, irrespective of educational background or anything and that’s what made Elora leave here successful career and come back to Bali.

I do know that it would be a difficult decision for many of us but notwithstanding of anything, one day we really have to choose which path we want to take for our evolution.

Watch her talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOSQksSlr9c

The Final Conversation with Loki

2012-05-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

You all must have watched the ‘Avengers’ by now and if you haven’t, go watch it. It’s a complete entertainer and I will further suggest that if you have an option to watch Avengers in 3-D then do go for 3D version as it do have the effects which can blow you off.

Ok, now let me come to the point. Let me deliver the final message of Loki to all the humankind but before that let me give a disclaimer: - I am just a messenger.

Last night the Loki came to my dream which may seem strange but then Loki do have strange power and he is from Asgard. In the dream he told me that Marvel didn’t show the last part of the movie where all the Avengers met with Nick Fury in the presence of Loki to discuss about the further steps and how to take care of the ‘Tesseract’ and also protect the Earth from further attack.

He told me that marvel didn’t wanted to show it because it may really frighten the humanity, which is really not the aim of the Marvel.

So, here’s the brief of the discussion i.e. whatever I still remember after that horrific dream.

The Last Conversation

The discussion started with Nick Fury congratulating the Avengers for working as a team and again protecting the earth from mass destruction. He also told them that while the Senator’s would keep blaming them for the destruction (which they should ignore) people are congratulating them for their effort.

He also points out that after the destruction of Loki and the army of chitauri, there exist a very little possibility that any other race would ever think of attacking Earth and for now avengers can take rest.

At which the Loki started laughing while Thor become serious…

Everyone looked at Loki and asked for the reason of his smile & he said “Human race is still too naïve, with little experience and you really don’t know the vastness of space and what exists outside for you all” Thor was still looking serious.

He continued “ There are hundreds of races like Humans and there are millions of powerful races than humans and somehow Asgard also. You are safe because somehow the other races are busy invading the other civilizations right now and you have been overlooked but this may not continue forever.

At which point, everyone’s eyes turned towards Thor who was still very serious & silent, lost in his own thoughts. Realizing that everyone is right now focusing on him only, he looked up and said “ Yup! We have to be careful” and again got silent.

At that point, Iron Man stood and asked him to explain what he really means and he stood with his shoulder down and tells them that galaxy is quite big, that it is still much unexplored and not even Asgard civilization is able to explore it. In past there has been times when Asgard has faced the threat of extinction also and it won’t be too long when more powerful civilizations would be attacking the earth also and I fears that human civilization may lose in this fight as they do have one major weakness in contrast to other civilizations.

Listening this, the Loki started laughing more loudly and everyone looked confused thinking to what weakness they are referring.

Loki again started speaking “you all are brave, you are ready to sacrifice your life for your Earth, you are intelligent”. However, still you will lose because in the end it all comes to that weakness.

At which the Hawkeye got angry and hits him straight in his face and he fell flat, when the Nick Fury comes and stops them from fighting and ask him to tell them about the weakness.

He says “The biggest weakness of the human race is it’s biggest strength, whereby at one side it gives you immense power but simultaneously it makes you weak “ and the entire human race can’t control this power and at last it would only be a question of whether that power bow to you or you bow to that power and start laughing.

Everyone in the room was really not looking in the mood to listen this shit and started rising from their seats to finish the Loki right there when Thor raised and asked them to sit and said “That weakness is sentiments and I have found that it’s somehow in Earth nature only as now I also feel a bit of culprit of it “

Everyone looked astonished, as no one was expecting this weakness and on listening it they understood it’s gravity and they also understood that they really don’t have any answer to this question right now.

At which point to change the topic Nick Fury says that as for now, due to your efforts we have got the “Tesseract” back, so we are again continuing the research and this time we are increasing the security with Iron Man and captain America is also with us to protect the Tesseract.

Listening that, Thor again stood up and said that these weaknesses of human race would only make it fall and also susceptible to attack from other races.

He said “There was a reason that Tesseract doesn’t exist here on earth and it existed in Asgard because God was knowing that you still need time to protect yourself from attack from other civilizations and you need time but the moment you started researching on Tesseract. You gave a signal that you are ready to fight and to be invaded and if you again start the research than whatever protection you do impose, someone will locate the radiation waves and then they would attack Earth and may be this time, the attacking civilization would be 100x stronger than chitauri.

Nick Fury on listening this asked for his suggestion and he said I really don’t have the answer because you can hide Tesseract anywhere but someone will surely identify it location

Everyone Felt Silent.

At which point Dr. Bruce Banner (Hulk) rises from his chair and while thinking he says “ Tesseract is a part of Asgard and if we can’t keep it with us, shouldn’t we send it back to the place from where it came from i.e. Asgard”

Nick Fury became really angry on this suggestion but then Loki states that the same reason that humans don’t see the rationality behind an idea/suggestions but the feeling’s. This is the only chance of human race to protect itself and give itself time to make itself strong and there is no other civilization except Asgard you can really rely on.

Listening this Capt. America rises from his chair and tells everyone to shut up his or her mouth and says that Tesseract is not going anywhere, as it’s safer on earth than any other place on universe as we all are here.

But then Natasha Romanoff raises and says “That would be liking putting the earth in danger while we all being aware of the it”.

“We can’t put it with other civilization without the knowledge of who would be protecting it and there is a possibility that loki may himself strikes back ” Capt. America said.

Everyone started arguing regarding what we should do with the Tesseract but it was looking like no decision is possible and Loki was ecstatic listening to the whole conversation and finding the sentiments again taking over their rationality.

“I will take care of it on Asgard” said Thor and the complete room felt silent and the smile of loki turned into frown. ‘I think my time has come to leave Earth. It was due to my presence only, earth has faced these attacks and I would never like that any other strike happens due to me and this beautiful planet get destroyed because of me . I have to go now to Asgard.

Everyone really wanted to stop Thor from leaving, as he has really given everything to protect earth and was part of Avengers but they also know that their main aim is to protect Earth irrespective of whatever sacrifice it requires.

And it got decided that Thor and Loki would leave the earth and Tesseract would remain in the custody of Thor till the time being Nick don’t advance so much that we can be sure we would be able to protect it and earth also.

Every thing was planned Thor and Loki were ready to leave and all the avengers came to say good bye to Thor, when Capt. America says ‘Thor we will miss you, but I will miss your hammer more and can you please lend it to me” and Thor hands over the hammer to him “But he crumbles under its weight” until Thor takes care of it and ask him do you still want it and everyone starting laughing.

“We will be needing you Thor and would not keep you away from us for too long. Take Care of the Tesseract” says Nick

Thor and Loki Vanish into space while the Nick Fury has to attend a Call from all the senators and all the avengers go on their separate paths.

“Problems will keep coming and going but what matters most is your attitude towards that……….I will be back” Loki……Ha ha ha….

Why I hate to see the newspaper

2012-05-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

My Parents used to tell me “Just work hard for these early years (school years) and then you would never have to work hard for your entire life “. But, Truly speaking I was a bit of exception and didn’t really listened to them but after the 12^th I really didn’t spare a single day and worked really hard, which do gave me satisfaction but then I couldn’t find a single day when I don’t have to work to earn my bread. So, it made me think ‘why my parents told me that statement or they just told me because my grandparents told them and they are still think that one day it would come true and thought to try on me’.

So, coming back to the topic “Why I hate to see the newspaper” So the reason is somehow similar that it makes me realize on daily basis of how wrong my parents were and how the god has planned the life for people like us.

The Newspaper make me realize that there is huge disparity being done directly by god while making people i.e. he has made two kinds of people one very lucky and one very unlucky. Also, as to make this joke more powerful/funny he said ‘I will also keep these fool’s in a dilemma that if you work hard one day you would surely come out of this unlucky people category to this amazing the lucky part ’. And then he laughed holding his tummy.

So, whenever I see the newspaper, I realize that we people are still in the same dilemma and whenever we are on the verge on realizing this dichotomy, the god suddenly realizes this and to prevent us from coming out of this dilemma, he transfers one or two from this unlucky category to this lucky category. Then whole media keeps on portraying about these few people for weeks till it get into the brain of every unlucky parent which again reinforce it in the brain of his child and make sure that his child get’s it to such a level that he is programmed to give the same examples to his own kids also.

But, you must be guessing who are these lucky people whom I hate so much. So these are the people whom my whole country loves indefinitely (sometimes more than their loved ones also) while completely knowing that these lucky people may not have even heard about them and may never recognizes them (Doesn’t it sound like some kind of true love or devotion) so it is. But, the joke doesn’t end here ….God also made sure that despite the slavery got over at most of the places on earth or despite god gave us brain, we would be accustomed to think irrationally, the way these lucky people wants us to think and we would always be like a blind follower to them. But who r these people….

So, these are the people whom you see regularly on the television/Newspapers (I would go to such an extend that I would say that these people cover somehow 80 % of the front page) but then blind devotion doesn’t have any limit. So for now they have come up with an extra supplement newspaper to show their photos, tell their news and help us to keep our faith strong towards them.

I am sure you must have guessed it till now, and if you haven’t then I can’t elaborate more about them they are the politicians and the superstars. But as the saying goes there is always a silver lining in every situation, So the good news in this situation is that God didn’t this act partiality i.e. the whole world has it’s lucky(film stars & politicians) and unlucky people(Middle class people) irrespective of the race, caste and creed…isn’t it great. So, we do have the same kind of following of actors and politicians all across the globe.

But then you would give me examples like Irfan Khan or Manoj Bajpao who have became actors without anyone’s support/backing but then this is it (you are again getting fooled), these are the same cases which the god does to reinforce that you really can go from the unlucky category to lucky category with the aid hard work and also to give your parents a chance to tell you ‘Beta! See we were right’ if you would have worked hard one more year than you would have surely be in the different league (lucky league)’ but then the question arises when r parents were so sure of this idiom why didn’t they followed it and came in the ‘lucky league’.

Because somehow there is one more joke planted by god in the unlucky people minds which says ‘ Whatever amount of money you give to your child but if he doesn’t know how to preserve it he will ruin everything’ which again is another statement which these newspaper proves wrong, While reinforcing the idea that ‘More the money the more the attraction ‘ & Money attracts money. So, once you get lucky just open a brand new showroom of Car for your son and there is a very dim probability that it would fail looking at the growing Car market in India.

So, through this article I would like to convey two messages, one to our naive parents and the other to the newspaper companies.

First to the newspaper owners, I sincerely request you to please stop giving the 80% of your space to this people because irrespective of how much we try we couldn’t ignore these people also plz plz plz stop the supplement called _________City which doesn’t have any city news except the glamour news. I am requesting them to stop circulating this, so that more & more people can realize this fundamental flaw in the idea of ‘Work hard, Be rich’.

Also, my second request is to our loving parents that if you really think that this idiom is correct, so please become our role model and work so hard that you can give us your own example which will really convey the message well and also at the same time we can have some fun.

Why So Serious….

Prashant Agarwal

My Love is just like….

2012-04-20T04:04:00.000-07:00

So, I was teaching a rhyme to my kid which was by Ken Nesbitt when I realize that somehow the writer must have thought about this rhyme after hearing my love story or some similar story.

This rhyme is really beautiful and it talks about the ‘Sun and the Moon’ and how they are best friends but still they are never able to meet. In this rhyme he talks about that irrespective of the fact that they work in harmony and do know that their true worth is only realized because of the presence of the other but still they have sacrificed their friendship for the bigger role i.e. for the betterment of society. He further says that still being aware of the fact that one friend can’t meet the other they don’t forget the other and still remember them whenever they dream(or when they have time). Isn’t it a nice rhyme!

So coming back to the topic ‘my love is same like the love of the sun and the moon’ i.e. irrespective of the fact that I may not be able to meet her ever again but still I love her from the bottom of my heart and many times her image is only one which comes when I dream of a girl with whom I may want spend my rest of the life.

While I still haven’t told her anything and the reason is not that I am afraid of her being No but what if she says YES. Am I really worth of her love and would I be able to really suffix her happiness.

While I do get my inspiration from her and would be still getting it in future but I do know that some relations are only good till they are kept in the heart of the lovers.

Quite Unconditional but it’s true.

What do we unlearn when we actually learn?

2012-02-03T19:49:00.000-08:00

Today, there is a huge debate going on between various educationalist that ‘Whether education is really the panacea of all the problems’ and I have to admit that till few months back till the time I didn’t ruminate about education I was convinced that it was. May be the branding of education is so strong which makes us believe that education is the only path which can lead us to prosperity (As Christian Missionary use to believe that the path of Christ is the only path to reach heaven.)

But, it is not that the people don’t think that the education is important, just that they question the current education system, they want to think about the whole pedagogy from the ab-initio as the current system is not serving it’s purpose and somehow making us ‘Unlearn more than we are able to learn’.

Education starts dictating a linear path i.e. you go to school, you do hard work, you go to college and finally you get a good job but go out and look at any successful person and you realize that life was never linear for them, then why do we teach our kids for 20 yrs to act linear?

Education has been proclaimed as the ‘Ultimate way of prosperity’ but today there are millions who are graduates but unemployed and somehow they have lost one of the most important skills of human being ‘the act of survival’. From Centuries, human being are known to make their own way and surviving through toughest conditions. But today most of the young graduates know only one skill in which they have been trained in the college and have somehow lost complete touch with their own culture and the work of their ancestors like handloom, agriculture etc and by getting educated they have raised their expectations while the reality is not the same.

The linear path of education has started becoming so steep that today some 17 million college graduates are working in sectors which do not require college degree(only in U.S.), had they invested their time to learn more about that skills wouldn’t it be more useful. And are we really doing the right thing by making everything so linear and putting everyone through the same production lines. When had we learned that ‘Our society needs only one kind of professionals’ and when did we learned that ‘humans can be made in the same fashion as on a production line’ irrespective of their individuality.

Today, every society in the world is trying to change is public education? But why? Two reasons pop up as the biggest issues 1.Economics of providing education to everyone 2. Cultural Identity.

People have started realizing that while we are learning, we are also unlearning the old traditions, old cultures and old languages and as it has been said ‘There is no future without the History’ so is it really worth losing our cultures to learn something, which actually doesn’t make much sense. We all are asked to learn algebra in our school but the time we graduate only 10% would be using it and only 2% use it in their professional life, So why do we are do adamant about these issues?

Also it’s not only the students who are unlearning but somehow it feels like the reformers of our society have also started unlearning and due to which there is some kind of ‘ADHD(Attention deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Epidemic’.

Today, when a kid doesn’t learn we label him ADHD when a student doesn’t sit smartly in class we label him ADHD. Don’t you think there is some flaw in this conception, as in past children used to learn by playing, by interacting with things by being Aesthetic? But by labeling them ADHD we are inducing them to learn we are giving them medicine to sleep or become Anesthetic.

So, today the need of the hour is to unlearn rather than learn and we have to reflect back and admit that we really did something wrong or we have to inculcate a Buddhist’s ‘Beginner’s Mind’ –an attitude of openness, questioning, and listening, not with an attitude of expertise then entitles us to prescribe solutions for other people. And then only we can learn the nuances of education from other societies and understand how our own current system failing to support creativity and diversity we will need to face the challenges of the 21^st century? How can we re-imagine learning and culture in a way that supports individual creativity, cultural diversity, economic justice, and a sustainable relationship to the environment?

Some thoughts to end this Discussion:-

“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom.” – Albert Einstein

“Education...makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook.”

– Henry David Thoreau

“Real freedom will come only when we free ourselves of the domination of Western education, Western culture, and the Western way of living.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Prashant Agarwal

For More information on the particular issue please visit: -

1.Schoolingtheworld.org

2. Watch ken Robinson talk on ‘Changing Educational Paradigms’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Should Education Be like a River or a Swimming Pool?

2012-02-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

You must be thinking what is the similarity between the two and can we really compare the two, so the answer is it is still nebulous to me but I do know that there are some points which overlap and we can start from there.

Today’s Education	River	Swimming Pool
Try to work on a Linear Path	Makes it’s own path	Pre-defined by the engineer
Everyone knows the Danger and +ve pts	No one knows what lies ahead.	Everyone knows water is not contaminated and it’s safe.
There is a teacher to define your thinking and inspire you	Many times, the kids learn on their own to swim. Or sometimes they have someone to instruct but not every time.	There is a mentor to teach you the moves.
	A person who knows how to swim in river can surely swim in swimming pool	Vice Versa is not true for most of the cases.
Pattern being formed 100 yrs back is still followed in same fashion.	No river ever remains the same, it keeps it’s origin the same everything else modifies	Still go back to your swimming pool with little bit of renovation nothing changes much.
A student studying English in same board, In India or U.S...More or less learns the same thing.	Every River provides you with completely different experience some are swift while some are calm.	Swimming pool gives you the same experience except the mentoring by the Instructor.

So many of you ‘the Educated youth’ till now must have understand that what I am trying to portray here. That Our today’s Education System has somehow become quite similar to the ‘Swimming Pool’ in our backyard and dissimilar to the river which are the origin of our water and may be also the swimming pool because there won’t be any swimming pool without water.

But, if you ask many parents would they send their kids to a river for swimming they would say complete no-no, saying that when we have safe bets than why should we go for other option.

To a large extend, my discussion is about this same thinking of ‘Safe bet’ when my parents send me to the school they thought about this same ‘Safe bet’ and also when they and I decided that I should go for further studies, we all thought about the ‘Safe Bet’, And yes it was truly a safe bet because know I do know that I can easily get any decent job, a nice Car in 2-3 yrs , A house in 5 yrs..And my life would be same and happy like others.

But isn’t this average life of everyone like the ‘Experience of a swimming Pool’. What if I was allowed to think where I would like to go a school or a music class or a sports stadium?

Yes every school does provide the various options to pursue your talents but still their main focus is on academia and ultimately making you an intellect & it is surely the ‘Safest Bet’. Whenever we had a discussion regarding the passions of a kids the answer is ‘Let them pursue education and simultaneously they can pursue their passions’ Why is it not the other way round? Why we always keep the academia as our top –most priority.

Natural Talent is like the experience of biosphere of river, which is different for every kid but in our schools we teach every kid from the same book using the same text and would then ask them all to pass the same exam, Can it ever happen that they all can perform at same level in exams? Yes, it can surely happen and it has already started, as it started happening with the products in the ‘Industrial Revolution’ when we understood the concept of production line and somehow our schools are now the production line not to make products but the workers for the industry.

With the advancement of technology in Industries we started making quality products at lesser cost as all were same with no ‘Differentiation’ or identity of their own and with ‘Six Sigma’ we moved one step further that ‘Now we were having less and less defects also’.

Now, we want a Six Sigma for our kids also. Everybody should get above 90 % in the same test and with great delight I am happy to announce that the best schools are able to achieve it and in few years you will find it duplicated or I should say replicated in every school in the world and truly ‘We all would be really happy’ without knowing the long term harm we may be causing.

We are still following the same education system which was formed 100 yrs ago by educationalist with a tit-bit of tinkering but right now the need of the hour is of a revolution or a flood which should change the complete landscape while bringing new ideas, new soil of fertility .We have to look at education from ab-initio and somehow you will find some educationalist have started challenging the whole ecosystem of education.

Society was never run by a single profession and life was never linear but still we keep on enforcing our kids to get admission in Kindergarten then go to school, then college and the rest of it you all do know. Here’s I would like to quote my favorite Audi Quote ‘Two roads diverged into the woods and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference’. But who cares about this difference in student mindset and ideas we are just worried about ‘giving them a Safe Bet’.

Thus at the age of 3, a child has to go for an interview for kindergarten. Why do we think that 3 yrs old is half as six while he is just 3 yrs old? Why do we keep blaming children that they won’t be able to make the right decision? Are we ready to make the right decision? Don’ we make mistakes? Every Big Leader can tell you that a failure is a path for success but we are too intrigued by ‘Safe Bet’.

Prashant Agarwal

I will write more articles in this series, because we really have to discuss it and truly the onus is on us and no one else is there to blame now.

Lot’s of Ideas in this article are coming from a Ted Talk by Ken Robinson on topic ‘Bring on the Learning Environment’, the Documentary ‘Schooling the world’ and Gartner Lecture ‘The Unschooled Mind’. I highly encourage you all to watch the videos and read the article irrespective of your current industry, as I am sure we all are the product of this maniac education Industry.

When DCE turns DTU:- I get the Chance of my life

2012-01-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

The 2 best years of my life

I was preparing for giving the prestigious CAT exam next year ,when I get a call from my friend regarding D.C.E. starting a new M.B.A. course just for engineers and I thought to give it a try.

And so here I am, giving the GD and interview for a college, which is there from 100 years, but the programme I was joining has just started and I would be one laying the foundation stone of this programme (only if I get selected). When I with 59 other students joined D.S.M. we had lot of anticipation, lot of dilemma and lot of anxiety regarding where we are going.

Two great friends of mine who joined D.S.M. with me, left the college on its 1^st day only as they found out that there are no proper structures in place, but I stayed as I have ever believed that ‘You should complete the task on which you have put your foot forth’ also I believe a lot in ‘Connecting the Dots’ and imagine everything happening for a Good cause.

The initial months at D.S.M. -D.T.U. were not very great as it took time to settle ,to know new people(in reality I still don’t know much about them) and to realize that we are becoming managers from engineers or as our V.C. says ‘Techno manager’.

There were lots of stupid discussions about the future, which I avoided most of the time as they were not fruitful but I realized that D.T.U. in particular has a lot to give and I can really interact with engineering students who are really doing some amazing work.

So, I started looking at the notice board and start finding lots of interesting things (From starting of my college days I always used to look at the notice board as it would always provide me lot’s of valuable information).

But, to many of my class mates I came as a hard, no nonsense guy who loves to live in his own world and act as someone who is working on the next big thing (also I was intermingling more with the D.C.E. kids i.e. Playing basketballs, solving CAT questions together and knowing about the latest event.)

So they thought to play a prank with me and they gave a call to a beautiful girl in my batch by my name (& the news spread like haywire) but turned ugly when one of her friend without knowing me, told me about it in a language which I still think she shouldn’t have used with me?

I broke loose and hell of a scene it was…I was all over the place and it became official that somehow I was a guy with whom a girl in her senses shouldn’t interact (but it made me popular.. ‘There’s always a silver lining in everything’)

Ya, I liked her as she was really beautiful and sincere but I am not a person who fears his own action. I would have taken the complete responsibility if I had done it. Also, it was good as I talked with a girl whom I really liked (This time I also learned that never tell ur friends if you like someone …they may turn it nasty)

My reputation in class was also going from bad to worse and I was coming along as a very ‘peculiar’ kind of person. I really liked the term(as it means a strange or different) just hoped it was a bit +ve(In reality it was a term given to me by my marketing professor in the absence of me in his class. I really shared a very nice bonding with that professor….ha ..ha..ha)

But then came the Gala time and everyone wanted to have fun time and do something and this is the time when I was introduced to E-Summit(A platform for budding entrepreneurs) , I liked the idea & thought to join it’s team(irrespective of the everyone in my batch who thought they were above engineering students as they are doing a management course).

I met some amazing people and made lot of friends there and also I came to know about some secrets of D.T.U which really helped me later (So, keep yourself surrounded by the right brains).

So, I thought to submerge myself in the field of Entrepreneurship and blogging and I would say that they did become my greatest strength. It wasn’t a smooth ride from starting …I really wrote some shit posts and also got some really awesome reviews (but I kept going) some of my friends still hold the same opinion of my posts and I kept thinking about the B-plans till the time I made one and thought to present it in D.C.E. –Fest and luckily I won it and It was on the topic of ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ –which would later become my destiny.

And so to it:- I applied for Tata Jagriti Yatra(If you haven’t heard of it ,it’s an amazing journey of 18 days…Highly recommended) and organized a donation camp in collaboration with Goonj . In the meantime I somehow was able to convince some professors to help me get a FICCI and CII membership (I used to attend more of these and less of my classes, as I always preferred the former over latter and was able to meet some of the India’s best minds)

My M.B.A. was going smooth till I got a call from a friend who asked ‘whether I would be interested in organizing a TED conference’ & it become more smoother .Wow! I always used to watch them and now I would be organizing it. I joined the bandwagon and we really pulled every string to make it successful (I do admit I learned a lot and did made some really silly mistakes while organizing it) but somehow it was a success and I was thankful that I was again able to meet some great students.

My love life, that was one issue that I really missed while in D.T.U. and I still think I should have concentrated a bit more on that (but you can’t have everything)…so I will leave this section incomplete while I will admit that I do liked two girls in my class(one for her beauty and sincerity) and one for completely different reasons which I still thinks happens most of the time with me.(that if I logically put in words I would never like to date her)..I still wish to meet both of them.

I opted for IT and HR as my specialization, I really didn’t had any inclination towards any of them, it was just that …I was going with the flow and I was knowing somehow that I would still be spending most of my time bunking the classes.

My 3^rd semester went smooth, made lot of new friends, went to various places and somehow made a very strong bond with my room-mates(which I do know would remain intact till my last breath).

The Real excitement started in 4^th semester, D.S.M. was buzzing with placements and I was in desperate lookout for one. But most of the companies were somehow not for H.R. or I was not fulfilling their criteria.

But, somehow I made through one company and I was the only H.R. student to make through and I thought that’s it..Life is going to get smooth…Ha…Ha…Ha

I came to know about a Stanford program called A.S.E.S.(Asia Pacific Social Entrepreneurship Summit) and applied to it. I was rejected but who the hell are they to reject me and I again used D.C.E. in flamboyant manner sending them my recommendation and giving them all the reasons why I should be there….and here I am ‘Prashant Agarwal Selected’ .

I planned, arranged for funds and everything in less than a week, it was really a hell of a week and on returning I came to know that the company in which I got selected has already conducted the interviews and I was put on hold.

But, somehow Teach For India Came and as I have also previously taught and respected this organization a lot, So I thought to give it a try and I got selected.

Meanwhile, people in D.S.M. started liking me and I thought to give a try to the girl whom I liked for completely different reasons, so I tried but I couldn’t see it working…but I do tried till the end of my D.S.M. days and may be I will still try sometime in future (Just hoping that she don’t get married).

Our 2 years were getting over and I was bit sad and I hoped for a farewell, but came to know that our juniors has no plans as we didn’t gave them fresher’s party(and I think that’s completely valid). But, I have to do something, else how would I be able to end this post …so here I am organizing my own farewell keeping it secret from others.

I started planning with 3 friends with a corpus of Rs 800, which somehow grew to Rs 10,000 with the support of D.S.M. faculties and which with the help of D.C.E. grew to Rs 80,000 and it was a gala night and thanks to the contribution of my friends we were really able to give a memorable time to everyone in D.S.M.

So, for me D.S.M. has been an amazing place where you can pull off as much as you want, just you have to have the right conviction and the right attitude

Just Few Tips(Of course you can ignore them):-

1. Keep yourself surrounded by the right Guys…It helps you in long run

2. Do form a strong bond with your room mates

3. Always lookout for various notices on the notice board…else where the hell do you think you can view an opportunity.

4. Just be close to D.T.U. Administrative building, there’s a lot going around here.

P.S.:- I just love D.T.U. and the two years I spend there in.

Prashant

‘Mere jaroorte kam hain isliye maire jameer main dam hain’

2011-08-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

From few days events were happening in such a manner, which are again and again enforcing me to write an article on this issue.

Few days back when Standard & poor(S&P) degraded the U.S. rating from AAA to AA which again put the U.S. and its economic condition in limelight and made many economist think why U.S. is facing such an issue and what would be it’s solution.

Secondly, I came to know that India’s Investment rating is BBB- which is lowest in investment rating and if it goes further down it would be junk bonds which means that there is no future of investment in India. But, what does it all have to do with the Title…B’coz most of you must have figured out that this is a dialogue from a latest movie ‘Singhham’ and Ajay Devgan speaks this dialogue to his senior when his senior threatens him with resignation, but wait I will explain it later….

Also many people do ask me that why I have joined an NGO after completing my M.B.A. and how do I survive in this salary. Yesterday I was standing on the bus stop when one uncle inquired that do I work in I.T. sector and on listening No he took out all his anger saying that ‘U.S. Ka diwala toh nikal gaya hain..ab bas in IT park ki baari hain ..jarroorte itni barh gayi hain inki aura ab salary ke wande lag jaayenge…’ and there is a bit of truth in his talk and then in afternoon I was

talking about the U.S. issue with my didi when she responded that her company may also face some problems in near future.

So are the trouble times really ahead of us…. and what is the solution to protect ourselves from it….

So coming back to the title and the question I raised regarding this talk and the title so if you look deep in the dialogue and with what the U.S. is facing right now you will understand the connection and that this particular dialogue from ‘Singham’ offers solution of our current problem.

Ajay Devgan was ready to face all the consequences and take the risk because he knew that if his senior also fires him he would be able to cope up.

And similarly we all have to really reduce our needs to the extend possible so that if at any point the bad news comes to you..It would surely hurt but then you would know that someway you would be able to manage.

I do know many cases where an employee keeps on working for his boss without liking his job or his boss because now he has started to spend his weekend by shopping and eating in lavish hotels and if he leaves his current job he won’t be able to afford that.

It becomes like a vicious circle whereby with the increase in salary you start to increase your expenditure and with the increase in expenditure you start demanding more salary with a hope that this cycle will keep on continuing (I also used to think like this).

But Now looking at the competitiveness among the firm and the economic condition I have to ask and pose this question to you all “what will happen if this vicious cycle breaks or reverse itself “i.e. you are out of job or your boss asks you to work with less salary”. Would you be able to reduce your expenditure?

I promise you it’s a difficult task and if you don’t believe me than just read the articles when the Lehman Bros got bankrupted and what happened to its employees.

So, take it as a suggestion or a warning whatever you like…but think about the title in your own perspective and r u ready for it?

------ Delly Belly:-Vocie of new India-----

2011-07-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Delly belly is maverick stuff:) its like shooting shit with confidence and presenting with an elegance. Refreshing watch :)

Delly Belly is a movie for all those who really can handle the sarcasm …or I should say it’s a movie for the new generation which is able to take everything light and do consider movies only as a form of entertainment.

From the 1^st scene of the movie and till the last it keeps on making you laugh but some scenes really depict a cheap comedy and it would only be digested by those who really see movies only as a means of entertainment and not as a showcase of what’s happening in the society.

If I have to tell the story in brief then I would say:-

Tashi (Imran Khan), a Delhi-based journalist living filthily with two roommates, winds up with a bunch of ‘desi’ goons chasing him and his mates after a mix-up. The three are forced to navigate the dark underbelly to survive, while encountering one situation after another and one idiosyncratic Indian after another.

Abhinav Deo has really done a great job in putting the sarcasm in an acceptable manner and also introduced lot’s of new things in Delly Belly like making 3/4^th of the movie in English and showing how the common people are engaged in different sins. Though Delhi is referred to in its title, it is not the real Delhi. Instead, it is the image of a Delhi populated by young, educated, newly ‘liberated’ urbanites. In that it is the splitting image of that young urban India anywhere perpetually churning like the stomach of a character in the film, a showcasing of this nations new neo-liberal underbelly.

Imran Khan,Vir Das and especially kunal roy has done a fabulous job in making everyone laugh & kunal roy is fun to watch irrespective of whatever he is doing.

The last scene of ‘Delly Belly’ is bound to become as iconic as the one in Mahesh Bhatt’s 1990 musical ‘Aashiqui’. If there the lovers were so embarrassed of their surroundings that they had to kiss under a coat, here the lovers who are not even girlfriend-boyfriend are so brazen and caught in the heat of the moment that the guy kisses the girl in full view, half his body hanging out a slowly moving Maruti car symbolic of old India, unconcerned whether others are looking (which they are not). If that isn’t the urban, chic, and unconcerned-about-others India that has moved away from the morality of an un-liberalized India in ‘Aashiqui’ then what is?

I don’t know how to put it :-But Delly Belly really lacks the storyline ,it doesn’t have a nice soundtrack ,it definitely don’t have any actress in it..But still go and watch this amazing movie and I can promise you that it would really take long before you can watch a movie like Delly Belly.

With Lot of help from News One

Win-Win situation for Entrepreneurs and the B-Schools

2011-07-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, Clarkson University President Tony Collins and members of the business school faculty had been thinking of ways to strengthen the school's entrepreneurship program. Clarkson's undergraduate business program had a strong focus on entrepreneurship, but the school wanted to attract more top-teen entrepreneurial talent to campus. The problem was finding the students.

The Clarkson team tackled the problem like businessmen, coming up with an unusual concept: exchanging tuition—which can cost close to $150,000 for four years—for an ownership stake in the incoming student's business.

"We think we can take young entrepreneurs and make them better entrepreneurs, but we are a private university and we are not inexpensive," says Timothy Sugrue, the business school dean at Clarkson (Clarkson Undergraduate Business Profile), a private school in Potsdam, N.Y. "If tuition is what is standing between us doing that, then the idea of trading a portion of a student's company for tuition and a little help making it stronger seems like a win-win."

They ran with the idea, establishing a Young Entrepreneur Award program last fall. The program looks for a handful of students each year who have started their own companies and recruits them to the school. Students selected for the award receive enough financial aid to cover tuition and allow the university an equity stake in their business venture.

A WEB OF WEBSITES

The first student the school selected for the program was Matthew Turcotte, 18, of Clayton, N.Y., who started his own Web development company, North Shore Solutions, when he was 16. He started by designing a Web site for his uncle's business and was soon building websites for other small businesses in his town, eventually expanding his client base to businesses all over New York, California, and Canada. His accomplishments attracted the attention of Collins, who saw Turcotte on the local news promoting a book he'd just written titled, From Main Street to Mainstream: The Essential Steps to Launching Your Small Town Business Online.

That fall Collins invited the high school senior to his home for dinner, where he and Compeau presented him with the concept behind the Young Entrepreneur Award program. In exchange for a portion of his company, the school would give him free tuition, free office space, and mentorship from Clarkson business faculty and successful alumni.

For Turcotte, the offer proved to be irresistible. Clarkson was one of his top choices, but he knew it would be a financial challenge to attend a private school without taking out massive student loans, he says. His parents were initially wary of the idea, but he says he convinced them it was the right move for his career.

"It was either I could take this opportunity or end up going to my local community college," Turcotte says. "For me, it was my ticket to go to the university I wanted to go to."

STRUCTURING THE CONTRACT

Once Turcotte agreed to enter the program as a full-time student in the fall of 2010, the next challenge was figuring out how to structure the agreement between him and the university. Both sides brought in lawyers as they hammered out the contract, eventually working out a deal that allowed the university to buy about 10 percent of his company, acquiring 1.25 percent each semester that Turcotte attended the school.

The format of Clarkson's Young Entrepreneur program appears to be unique among undergraduate business programs and sends a positive message to students that entrepreneurship is a viable career path, even at a young age, says Patricia Greene, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College (Babson Undergraduate Business Profile). It is not the first time, however, that universities have taken an ownership stake in early-stage companies using university resources. In the mid-1990s, many of the early university business incubators that proliferated at business schools planned to support themselves by taking a 1 percent ownership stake in the tenant companies that occupied school space and used the school's resources, Greene notes.

The model still exists at some schools today. For example, at the Thunderbird School of Global Management(Thunderbird Full-Time MBA Profile), companies accepted into the school's incubator program must give Thunderbird a 10 percent stake in exchange for space on campus and services provided to the company by the school, says Katherine Hutton, managing director of Thunderbird's Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship. If the company is virtual and does not take up any campus office space, the school receives a 5 percent stake, she says.

FINANCIAL PAYOFFS

This type of agreement can be a risky model for some schools, especially if the companies do not end up taking off, Greene says. In general, few of the early business school incubators that deployed this ownership model ended up with a significant payoff, she says.

"It will be interesting to see how the financial aspects play out at Clarkson," says Greene.

Clarkson also will have to be careful how it handles its relationship with students in this program, taking steps to ensure a clear separation between a student's academic performance and his business relationship to the school, Greene says.

"It is a slippery slope," she says. "It is a relationship that has to be really carefully managed, because there are potential ethical issues."

Clarkson Dean Sugrue says the agreement the school worked out clearly outlines the expectations the university has for Turcotte and the nature of their relationship. The contract also addresses potentially thorny issues, such as what to do in case one of the parties wants to opt out of the agreement, and it contains a termination clause that takes effect if the student's business fails.

Turcotte says he is comfortable with the deal that he worked out with the school, calling it a "transparent partnership."

"Really, the student has control of the company and decides what is going to be happening on a day-to-day basis," Turcotte says. "Clarkson is funding my education, and when the year is over, they just want their cut of the profit."

IN THE HANDS OF MENTORS

So far the program appears to be a success for both parties. When Turcotte entered Clarkson last fall, he was given office space in downtown Potsdam and one-on-one time with the school's entpreneurship faculty, who helped him develop a mission and vision statement for his company. He has also been assigned two alumni mentors who are helping him expand his business. One is Martin Roesch, founder and chief technology officer of Sourcefire (FIRE), a maker of security products for computer networks. The other is John Zdanowski, co-founder and chief financial officer of video advertising service PixelFish.

Between classes, Turcotte spends his spare time expanding the company and its offerings, moving into such new areas as logo design, Web hosting, and online marketing and consulting to young startups. He has gotten new business through his connections with the university, working with professors and with small businesses in the towns around Potsdam. North Shore Solution's annual revenue this year is more than $100,000, and Turcotte now oversees 40 contractors who work for him around the country and the world, he says, adding that his goal is to expand the company's presence in the Northeast region in the next few years.

"The program has really allowed me to think bigger," he says. From the school's point of view, it doesn't hurt to have a living, breathing entrepreneur in class fielding questions from students who hope to follow in his footsteps.

The school is hoping to expand the program next year and bring on more budding teen entrepreneurs like Turcotte, says Sugrue. The business school would like to accept 10 more students into the program over the next four years. Any money the school receives from Turcotte's business will be funneled back into the Young Entrepreneurs Program, Sugrue says.

"If he is successful, we'll be able to take in two or three more people just like him," he says. "I hope Matthew more than doubles the revenue of the company before he graduates, and he is well on his way to that. The sky is the limit for him."

Relevance to the Indian Context:-

Over the years ,we have also seen in India that the fees for an M.B.A. program increasing tremendously, making it unaffordable for many. So, this type of arrangement can definitely solve the problem to some extend as the B-Schools would be able to fulfill their financial need over the long term and also able to increase the diversity while on the other side students would be able to get the best of education without putting too much financial burden on them.

P.S.:- I do hope that some of our best M.B.A. colleges do consider this type of arrangement and more and more students are able to achieve the best of education.

Source:-Business Week

It's not an ordinary Story

2011-06-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

These days, a story which is in the limelight of every financial newspaper is the story of Rajat Gupta, a story of Rags to Riches, how a simple person from Calcutta transformed his destiny to become the first ever Indian born CEO of Transglobal Firm ‘Mc-Kinsey’.

But, when I read the recent articles about him, few questions come to my mind…

· What is the limit of money , how much do I actually require

· Where’s the education system is lacking, doesn’t being ethical and doing right, part of being an educated personnel’.

· At most what can a child at 18 can dream of…

Do ask these questions before proceeding further

Reading about all this, I started thinking whether Socrates would still stand by this quotation written by him “Even if we know we can get away by doing the crime, Even if no one ever finds what we are up to. It’s our vices that affect us more than it hurt our victims”.

Yes, this story is really not an ordinary story because the last time I read about Rajat Gupta was when he was elected to the position of Director in Mc-Kinsey and was interviewed by Business Today and at that time reading about his hardships and the way he progressed was really inspiring.

Rajat Gupta is a person who would definitely be an idol of many students, a symbol of success and its for sure that if you have known his story a year past then you can only be astonished, inspired or envy him.

It’s not an ordinary story because Rajat really didn’t used any malice or wrong practice to reach this top, but he worked hard day and night and didn’t get disturbed by the circumstances.

Rajat Gupta Background:-

His father was a freedom fighter who died when he was 16 and his mother died when he was 18, but he studied hard to get in IIT-D securing 15th rank in IIT-JEE .He made a tough decision to join Harvard leaving a high paying job at ITC when all his friends were going for Job. Most of the recruiters were not talking to him in Harvard, as he was on a student Visa and Mc-Kinsey rejected him because he didn’t have any experience. But due to the recommendation of his professor Walter Salmon he was re-interviewed and selected directly for Mc-Kinsey.

He became the Head of Mc-Kinsey in 1998 which was also the first time that a non white was given such an elite post. He remained there till 2007 i.e. completing full 3-3 yrs terms which is the Maximum for a person to serve as a head of Mc-Kinsey.

Beside, this he was also in the advisory board of Harvard and the Kellogg School of Management and also a co-founder of Indian School of Business. He did lots of Philanthropic work with like of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Warren Buffet, Bill & Melinda Foundation and gave a new direction to American Indian Foundation (AIF).

People use to describe him as a soft at heart and a smart person.

CRIMES:-

He has been convicted by the Securities and Exchange Control (SEC) for passing on confidential information to hedge fund Billionaire ‘Raj Rajaratnam’, who runs a ‘Galleon Group’ and is currently behind bars.

He is also convicted of running his own firm by the name of ‘New Silk Route Partners’ and also providing private consultancy to firms when employed by Mc-Kinsey.

But:-

But, if you read the story that is aptly covered by wall street Journal and Economic Times and hear the tapes between him and Raj Rajaratam you will find that somewhere he was aware of his moves which is shown by the obscurity of his thoughts while talking to Raj .Secondly, he is a person who is so much involved with philanthropy and everyone close to him praises him so much..So is the money which motivated him so much.

As said by Terry Connelty, Dean of Agene School of Business when asked about the question of ‘Why Rajat did so?’ he said: - “you can never underestimate the seductive power of zeroes added to numbers. If you’re in hedge fund mangers’ circle and you’re not rich like them, you can start asking ‘why can’t I get that? I am every bit as smart “

Motives are still not Clear:-

But the people who are close to Raj and Gupta and who know the details of the deal believe that Gupta did not seem to profit much from the tips. Some conjecture that he may have passed information to Rajaratnam because of the hope for future profits. If that's true, and it’s not at all clear that it is, how much did he expect to make?

So, verdict is not yet out but why? Did a person like ‘Rajat Gupta’ indulge in such crimes? Doesn’t it show the human tendency of never ending greed? Doesn’t it make us ponder to thing about the values and the education we are imbibing our students with?

We really don’t know what the verdict would be... but one thing is certain it really made me think about my actions and where they are going to lead me…

P.S.:- I do hope that Rajat Gupta do have some powerful argument for his actions because irrespective of whatever crimes has been imposed on him, I still see him as my idol.

With Inputs from article from WSJ and Economic Times

Barefoot-Another Miracle of Love

2011-05-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

A real life story that proves yet again that in the midst of all the suffering and pain, there is still space for love and kindness.

In the soft afternoon light which filtered through the stained glass windows of a modest church in a village in Holland, we were witness to a miracle of love.

It all began 24 years earlier, in an orphanage in Karachi, Pakistan. An abandoned, severely malnourished baby girl was rescued by workers of an austere orphanage, run valiantly by a formidable but compassionate Dutch nun. They named her Raphaele. The doctors found that she had a hole in her heart, and needed early surgery and sophisticated healthcare if she was to survive. But this was beyond the resources of the orphanage. An appeal was circulated across Holland for parents who may wish to adopt the infant, who would otherwise die.

In Holland, a Dutch business consultant, Ferdinand van Koolwijk, and his wife Loes, a nurse, decided spontaneously to adopt the baby. They were on a plane to Karachi a few days later. They found a sickly thin baby, but she seemed immediately at peace in Loes' arms. It was love at first sight.

Unexpected saviour

They had only a week to conclude the legal formalities to adopt Raphaele. She needed urgent medical attention to survive. But Pakistan's bureaucracy is no less daunting than in any other nation. People suggested they hire the services of a leading Parsi lawyer Rustam Kaikobad. The eccentric and somewhat dry attorney quizzed the Dutch couple, and then agreed to take up the case. He himself typed reams of paper on his noisy manual typewriter, took the couple to a whirlwind of court-rooms and peeling government offices, and finally even managed to persuade the authorities to let the baby travel without a passport. All in a week, and when they departed, he refused to accept even one rupee as fee.

In Holland, with love, good food and medical attention, Raphaele quickly healed, and blossomed. Before long, she was indistinguishable from other Dutch children, except for the colour of her skin and hair. She was spirited, ebullient and affectionate, and her parents were very proud of her.

Another blow

Disaster hit them unexpectedly when she was twelve. She crashed her cycle into a tree, the first indication that she was losing her vision. The doctors discovered a large malignant tumour in her brain. In her six weeks in hospital, her mother never left her even for an hour. The operation took 10 hours. For her parents, it was the hardest vigil of their lives. The doctors had warned that they could not guarantee she would survive, and if she did, in what shape she would be. The surgeons saved her life, but she lost most of her eyesight and hearing.

The family was devastated. They begged her school to let her at least sit in her old class. But the teacher was crabby, and Raphaele was relegated to the back of the class, unable to see or hear. This left her even more dispirited. It was difficult for all three to finally accept that her best chances were in a blind school. Her parents shopped desperately for therapies across Europe, and located a neuro-stimulating therapy in Germany. Raphaele persevered with her strict schedule of tedious eye exercises, with a resolve well beyond her years, contributing to slowly improving her vision. The child rebelled against holding a stick, or adopting any symbol of being ‘disabled'.

She became lonelier and lonelier, as her childhood friends gradually slipped out of her life. She was angry with God, and refused to pray. But her blind school did teach her skills to handle life with greater autonomy. At 16, she slipped further into depression, and would speak to her parents about how life would pass her by. Her parents fiercely contradicted her. She was in no way less than anyone else. And she should not feel sorry for herself.

Gradually her natural optimism and resilience resurfaced. She returned to church, and to going out again, meeting other young people. She even insisted on cycling once more, despite her severely limited vision. She chose a vocation for herself: a nurse like her mother, specialising in the care of old persons. She completed her training, and was employed in a geriatric hospital. She took fine care of her often cantankerous clients, but never let them get out of hand. She developed a reputation as an efficient and caring but feisty and firm hospital attendant. She now owns a small company from which she provides services to the elderly who wish to stay in their residences as long as possible.

Three years after she lost her eyesight and hearing, in 2002, even as he suffered each day with his daughter, her father Ferdinand took a momentous decision, to establish a social enterprise called Partnership Foundation. It would raise money in Holland to establish 50 homes for 10,000 homeless girls like his daughter had been. Since it was difficult to work in Pakistan, he would establish these homes in India.

Around that time, in distant Kolkata, a four-year-old street girl was raped just outside the gates of the most elite girls' school in the city, Loreto Sealdah. The Principal of the school, a charismatic Irish nun, Sister Cyril, agonised why she ran a school for the city's elite, and not for children who were most in need. Like Ferdinand, she too took a decision that would change many lives. She would open the doors of her school also to homeless street girls. There was uproar and outrage, among the parents and the church establishment. But the redoubtable Sister held her ground, and admitted the first street girls.

Ferdinand was in search for a partner in India, and heard of Sister Cyril's audacious initiative. He flew to India, and offered to help. Together they constructed an additional floor to her school, where the ‘rainbow children', as they called them, would live. The children of the regular school would teach the rainbow girls. In a few months, they would be ready to join the regular school. Loreto today houses 700 street girls, and Sister Cyril was awarded a Padma Shri.

Helping hand

Ferdinand then searched for a new partnership in India. With some young friends, I had resolved to start residential schools for street children in Delhi and Hyderabad. Ferdinand found me, and in three years, together we established two girls' homes in Delhi and 14 in Hyderabad. For our boys, we have to look for money elsewhere. But for every street girl we take care of, Ferdinand's Foundation promises to provide until they grow into adults. Today the Foundation supports 1,700 girls in 22 homes.

Meanwhile, back in Holland, one day Raphaele announced to her delighted parents that she had found a boy-friend. They could not believe when she brought Bart home — tall, handsome blond, a medical technician. They took a liking to the quiet young man immediately. The couple had met at a gathering of young people, and he felt immediately drawn to Raphaele. Her impaired vision mattered little to him. A year later, they decided to move out and live together. In another two years, they resolved to marry.

It was the miracle of their union that we witnessed that spring afternoon on April 16, 2011, in the church in the Dutch village Driebergen. As Ferdinand proudly walked down the aisle of the church, his arm locked in Raphaele's, his daughter resplendent in her white gown and trail, there were lumps in many throats. The priest described Bart as deep and still waters, and Raphaele the manifest joy of his life. The young couple kept turning to each other throughout the service, each deeply dependent on and fulfilled by the other.

I am agnostic, so I could not at that moment thank God. But I felt profoundly grateful to humanity — that in our world, even amidst incredible suffering, there is love, and kindness, and goodness, and hope.

Laloo Goes To Pakistan...

2011-05-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

Laloo becomes Prime Minister of India and goes to Pakistan to meet Zardari and discuss Kashmir issue.

After a 5-minutes closed-door meeting, Laloo comes out.

Reporters ask for a statement.

Laloo: “Zardari bhai will make the announcement.”

Zardari comes out and drops a bombshell:

"Pakistan has decided to give up all claims on Kashmir."

The world is stunned. Laloo has achieved in 5 minutes what others had failed to do in 60 years!

"How did you do it, what did you promise?" the press asks.

Laloo: I got wonderful idea from the Akai company people. They give fridge free if you buy TV, cellphone free if you buy DVD player.

So, I said to Zardari bhai - "You want Kashmir, right? Take it. But you will get Bihar free with it!"

Source:-from a friend

P.S.:- Not to hurt anybody feelings..do take it in a lighter mood

I quit Drinking

2011-05-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

This particular joke won an award for the best joke competition Organized in Britain:

A man walks into a bar in London and ordered 3-glasses of beer and sits in the backyard of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn.

When he finishes, he comes back to the bar counter and orders 3 more. The bartender asks him, “You know, beer goes flat after I fill it in the glass; it would taste better if you buy one at a time.” The man replies, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Dubai, the other in Canada and I’m here in London. When they left home, we promised that we’ll drink this way to remember the days when we drank together.”

The bartender admits that this is a nice custom and leaves it there. The man became a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He order 3-Beers and drinks them in turn. One day, he came in and ordered only 2-Beers All the other regulars notice and fall silent.

When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my sincere condolences on your great loss.”

The man looked confused for a moment, then he laughs.... “Oh, no,” he, said, “Everyone’s fine - both my brothers are alive”. The only thing is I just quit drinking...!!

Source:- Through a Friend..

No, a very Important word for love

2011-05-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be writing an article on this topic but somehow I thought that you all should know about it before falling in love or in the initial stage of love only.

Love in reality is a lot complicated but this simple word ‘No’ can really simplify it a bit (saying this from my experience). I have to say that I was never a master in using this great word but lately I have started using more of it and found my life getting easy.(Thanks to all my friends).

I used to have a friend in my college days whom I really liked but she was having a habit of always criticizing me about one issue or the other, which always used to upset me after talking to her, but I guess it was me only who has to be blamed as I was the one making most of the calls. I continued this for 3yrs during my college and also 1 yr after the college but she didn’t improvise and always used to make me feel like I am talking to a dictator rather than a friend.

My friends use to tell me that she doesn’t love me but when did a lover listened to truth and I always kept making calls to her but one day I told her that if she continued this nagging thing then I have to discontinue the talk, but she kept going and then at that particular moment, I disconnected the call and wow! What a relief I felt… Amazing how light I felt by ignoring her…

Sometimes I do felt that I didn’t did the right thing and may be I should have tried some more to make her understand me but sometimes you have to take the hard decision, you have to put a bar somewhere.

I don’t know with how many of you this has happened that sometimes you feel like being dragged by love i.e. you are doing something just because of being pressurized by the other partner.

But, love never drag anyone and everything done in love is from the heart and it always provide pleasure to the doer and from whom it is being done.(It may sound too philosophical but then it’s love ,which is compared equal to god and I think that there is nothing more philosophical then these two.)

I am just saying this for both the partners in love, that love does bring sorrows but those sorrows also have some pleasure in them. So, if at some point you start feeling like ‘what the hell is going here!’ and you can’t think any future of that relationship after 5 yrs (ok! If that’s too much lets say 2 yrs) than don’t waste your time, devote your time with some other person, there would definitely be someone else who share the same feelings as you.

Loves demands commitments and if you don’t have the courage to face all those commitments then do convey it to your partner and if he/she understands than he/she definitely loves you else you will always feel pressurized under the pressure of love(which love never does) and would get confused b/w true love and material love.

True and Sad love story

2011-05-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is a true and sad love story of an Engineering student….

A guy was deeply in love with his classmate…

One day he proposed to her,

But the girl got very angry and threatened him that she would complain to the principal even if he ever bothers her again…

One day the girl borrowed a text book from that boy and wrote a message in that book,

“I love you too and I am sorry to hurt you the other day…

If you have forgiven me, please come and talk to me and never leave me”

But the guy never talked to her…

4 years went away and nothing happened…!

..............

*Moral of the story*

..............

*Engineering boys never open their books!!!*

Source:- Internet...

Hope you like It!

Why should we be careful while using those three magical words ‘ I love you’

2011-05-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

As it has been already stated ‘magical’ so definitely something happens when these three words are spoken to some other person, but two instances are most common:-
1st Instance
Boy to Girl:-’I love you! dear’
Girl to Boy:-What!
Boy to Girl:-That,i love you. I love your smile, the way you talk and would like to live with..........
Girl Interrupts:- We are just good friends and i have never thought like that for you, and how could u do so....and run away

2nd Situation:-
Boy to Girl:-Hey ‘I love you! Jaan’
Girl to Boy:- Can’t you be somehow romantic
Boy holding Girl’s hand:- You have the most beautiful eyes i have ever seen, whenever i sit with you all my fears vanish and i would like to spend rest of my life with.......
while the girl start running while speaking....I do love you too...

I do know there can be thousand other instances/situations like where the girl loves your best friend or girl says I am suffering from TB and my life is left for very short span.....or anything but here in this article we would be using the two most common instances which i am sure you all must have faced in someway or the other.

Ok now, these two instances shows the ‘Magic’ of these magical words but has anyone thought ‘What are its ramifications .
The boy in the first instance would now start drinking blaming the girl(which is not correct) and surely he would not remain friend with the girl as in the past....Sorry! you poor chap...

In the 2nd instance, the boy would be roaming more with this girl of his dreams ,taking her to parks, restaurants while making future plans and feeling happy of being accepted by the beautiful girl.
But now, he has started spending less time with his hostel mates,friends and also started staying in hostel on the weekends . He also have to report daily to the girl and worst part 'He is now committed and can't see other girls...
His friends have started calling him by that girl name and his parents have started questioning his subtle change in his priorities.
So,don't you think things would have been better for both if they hadn't used the three magical words 'I love you' and also then they don't have to accept the whole lot of miseries and responsibilities that come along with it.
Saying 'I love you' is like standing on the cliff which is too steep on one side and there is a ravine on the other.
So if you are rejected you fall directly into the ravine and your story ends on the other side 'if you are lucky' and the girl accept your proposal, you experience extreme pleasure like when a kid rolls down the steep slope of the hill but he forgets that to again enjoy this happiness he has to move back to the top of the mountain which would be difficult and cumbersome.

Ok! i do know that you all must be knowing many friends of yours who have used these words and some of you use these magical words because of your insecurity that 'If you don't use it someone else will and would fly away with your girl'.

And if that girl was so impatient that she couldn't understand your love also and accepted some one else proposal just because you didn't proposed, so dear don't waste your precious emotions. There is a beautiful quote which says 'If something/Someone is leaving you, let her leave you; Because, it was truly yours only if it comes back to you else it was never yours.'
Secondly, do leave this job of expressing 'I love you' to your eyes and body posture as they do a better job in communicating emotions than the 'mouth'.

P.S.:- Written from a boy's perspective and this article is not written to hurt any feelings or emotions and if you feel hurt ,plz let me know.

It's time to get angry

2011-04-16T22:30:00.001-07:00

Dear friends,

Many of you don’t know me, many will say ‘unsubscribe’, many would not like to read at all but I need to write..

It’s not about me, it’s not about you. It’s about the place we stay in, the society we live in, the systems we have!!

I often wonder when a mosquito bites me why do I think of a repellant, why a coil or hit, why don’t I have the courage to question my municipality?

Why do I buy water in a bottle? Why do I purify water at my home? Does the water bill say that the tap water is only for washing clothes or having a bath? Why don’t I get drinking water in my tap?

Why should I pay a toll tax on every single black, nice looking road? Why a basic road is not my right?

Why do I buy an inverter or dream of a generator? Why don’t I get current in my wires?

Why do we call the private schools as public schools.. I always thought schools run by the government should be called public schools!!

Why- the cricketers who sold the ethics of game sit in parliament or come as experts on channels?

Why someone known for beating his wife and had charges of holding drugs is a celebrity to judge dance shows and all of us watch and clap too.

Why is it that the so called high profile tainted journalists still run public shows and we all watch it..

Why don’t I know the fine on jumping red light or for not wearing a helmet but am very well aware of power of 100 rupees: the cost of duty of most of the traffic guys across the country!!

Why is a girl raped in a roaming car in the capital of the country almost every month and all that the government says is that “girls should be careful..”

Why does the trial and judgment of social activists just takes a few weeks but Raja, Raju, Reddy roam around!!

Why even after killing hundreds of people on road the blue line buses remained on roads? Do you know any city apart from the capital of your country where the city buses crushed people on a daily basis?

Why didn’t we come on the roads when someone made elephants of stones for crores of rupees in U.P. where people still dig pits to sleep in winter or die of hunger?

Why a tainted, corrupt minister is called to IIM and Academy for IAS and applauded – unstopped on his desi style?

It’s so easy to call someone corrupt but have you ever thought; The act of bribe starts by giving not by taking.. it starts from me not from him or her.. so why don’t I look at myself first ?

I strongly believe that the Logic is always for NOT doing something.. Doing does not need logic, doers don’t believe in logics!!

Just a couple of years back some people came and played with us, killed our pride and people. We were angry.. some people thought that the attack in Mumbai was on rich people and therefore something would change..

Nothing happened.. we all go to gateway of India on every anniversary in November, burn some wax, sing some songs and come back. Nothing changes- the government is back, Z security is back and people are back at the Gateway of India…

It’s time to come out, stand up...move.. do something.. Sitting in drawing rooms or discussing over a mug of beer will not solve anything..

Please remember this country does not need thinkers any more, enough of them.. what you need is an action .. an initiative !!

Even when the government listens to Anna & the team, the voice has to go on… corruption is not limited to the government only !! we all need to start with ourselves and march..

It’s time for you to join.. Time to create lots of Jantar Mantars- across the country..

Lage raho !!

Anshu

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Anshu Gupta (Ashoka Fellow)

Founder Director

GOONJ..

10 things to learn from japan

2011-04-15T00:30:00.000-07:00

Forwarded to me by a friend

The 10 lessons:-

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No sensationalizing. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly

Lets have a view of GooglePlex

2011-04-07T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone

How'z doing!

I went to Google on 5th and thought to take you all with me. I can't cover it completely because of their non disclosure policy ,but i have got some video of it ...and hope you like it.

But, there is one thing i can definitely tell you ,Googleplex is really a amazing place to be...

Interesting place with Interesting people and yes with all the free food and free drinks.

Also uploaded some pics on picasa, so do have a look at it and if anyone faces any issue do let me know through comments.

Do let me know your opinion regarding Googleplex and if you would like to know something more about Google.

Regards,
prashant