Random Ramblings

Is there a fixed pattern of thinking one ought to follow? Is there a 'one size fits all' solution or a standard prescription for getting best out of any child? How good is it to just focus on faults of someone (especially children) and overlook the talent and good qualities he has? Are there just a few things that become indicator of your worth or how good you are? Is it always about comparison with what others are? Is it appropriate to suppress what a child actually is, in order to make him what you think he should be ? Isn't every kid special ? The movie Taare Zameen Par (TZP) provides food for thought for above questions and many more. Story of a dyslexic 8 year kid who is helped ... rather inspired by a teacher to bring the best in him. But it is not just about dyslexia. It is also about our attitude towards children. The movie blends realistic and touching treatment with creative elements in showing some elements during songs! The performances are awesome ... in fact a

Very Far Far Away was a large and diverse country. It had many ethnic and religious groups and subgroups and castes. But there was a problem. The constant infighting had taken a toll on their country. People were driven by diktats of religion and not its principles like love or brotherhood. This had taken a toll on almost all aspects of the country. Then HE came. HE, through numerous efforts managed to establish peace. HE established a new religion. A religion without any groups, caste, gods or rituals. A religion that was driven by ethics, equality, freedom, love and brotherhood. The countrymen now channelized their energy in more creative and useful things and prospered like anything. That was few centuries ago. But many things haven't changed. The country is extremely prosperous. HE is revered even now. People now worship him. They follow few principles of the religion and any deviation is not tolerated, and punishment is of highest order. Equality is still there, although the

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's. - Oscar Wilde Just read this quote. Found it awesome (like many other quotes!) , and so true! Maybe people find it more interesting to peep into other's business, other people's state of affairs. You have millions of people bombarding with questions like what are you doing, why, why this and not that, why are you wearing this outfit, why you are eating this and not that, why are you writing this stuff and why not thais etc. etc. followed by million other suggestions! It might be a genuine concern at times, ... but maybe, they find lives of more interesting than theirs ... or maybe they get some scoop to tell in social circles ... or probably there is a hope that they would be as ungood as theirs own, giving them a kind of smug satisfaction! But on second thoughts ... despite criticizing these, what I will do next? Maybe, out of curiosity, I may do a wikipedia search to know more about Oscar Wilde's lif

It was going to be a very short night. Maybe just couple of hours of sleep. Next day had few presentations, few project submissions and exams nearing. He don't care much, but nevertheless he had to pass. He was worried about that. And more so, as he had spent last few hours doing nothing except boozing. But for next few hours he had a more important task in had. That was to catch on with some sleep. Suddenly a voice woke him up. It was completely dark. Probably a power failure. Damn! His heater was not working. He was trying to sleep when suddenly that man covered all in black woke him up. He had probably left his door open. He did not introduce himself, but for no reason the two started some conversation. "What are you doing here?" The stranger asked Seems he has been caught unawares. Someone from outside world knew that he was doing nothing in the institute apart from just whiling away time boozing, gambling with few friends, sleeping, watching useless stuff on computer

"The movie is like a wine. With passing time it just gets better and better ..." - NR on DCH Braving the examinations, I watched Dil Chahta hai for the n th time yesterday, after a long gap of maybe more than an year. The movie is awesome. I won't get into review and all that stuff, as enough has been said and written, and everything would sound so cliched. The movie has everything in place - solid performances, script,witty dialogues, characterizations, freshness, music, wonderful direction etc. etc. But I think the best part is that you can identify with all the 3 friends - Akash, Sameer and Sid. [OK ... I take back the generalization, but it is extremely true with me, and maybe with most of us!] There are moments when I feel like one of them, and the very next moment I feel like other. These 'feelings' are no way exhaustive, but it becomes so easy to identify with at least one of them at some point or the other! And yeah ... It has one of my favorite one li

How often do we hear the above mentioned words? Especially in situations when there are chances of someone not taking anything well, or a comment not going down well with audience; in the situations when one needs to be politically correct and socially correct and be seen as morally upright. But if we remove the facade of the mushy gushy all-OK things, we can look into sort of ugly interiors of what respecting the sentiments mean ... and what it hides. Some of these reasons for expecting someone to respect the sentiments can be - 1. Person/ groups whose sentiments need to be respected are not open minded enough to hear a counter point of view, and my not be capable of any rational thoughts in that matter 2. There is something undesirable, or something ugly, or even something cancerous that needs to be hidden. 3. The truth might be extremely uncomfortable one, and ignorance might be a better option. 4. Deviation from the accepted norms is not desired. Reason - It has never been done so

Figure this - Some (publicity hungry!?) lawyer sues Mr. Narayan Murthy for showing disrespect to our national flag! Some other (publicity hungry!?) lawyer sues Sachin Tendulkar for showing disrespect to our national flag by cutting some Tiranga cake! There have been many other controversies related to insult on national flag, and pertaining to millions of code of conduct to deal with it. But, probably these two have been he most high profile ones in recent times! But all seems too idiotic to me. Probably these two persons in question have contributed million times more to the nation than those 'petitioners'. And they are being belittled on basis of doing some act which they think is a proxy for insulting national flag, which they believe is a proxy for disrespecting the country. Hadh hai ! But, a part of blame lies with the kind of laws and code of conduct that exists for national flag. Maybe, we are too much concerned about proxy for respecting a nation, than doing something c

X to Y - "You have done this and this. It is a shame. You shouldn't have done this" Y replies- "So what? What you did in that case was also not right" This and that could be anything that is most likely to be some deplorable act. X can be anyone - an individual, an organization, or a political party. Although in public domain, it is usually political parties that are more dominant in following such approach. For instance one political party says - "X party did wrong thing by sanctioning misuse of power to kill innocent people in the village". And other retaliates - "... (blah blah blah) 13 years ago when they were in power, they allowed killing of hundreds people in their state". Such examples are many. Without taking any sides, I think this is too dominant in our system. Instead of not doing wrong or accepting the wrong doing, we often justify it saying that it was of less intensity than others and similar things! Such 'holier than t

This is a case study in how to make a presentation or a project report in a B school. This is a study of how to copy-paste from various sources (at the same time acknowledging it) and presenting a complete package with some excellent glossy packaging! For example, the movie - Om Shanti Om had the basic template from the movie Karz. The main attraction was inspired from John Jhonny Janardan’s title track. There were generous doses of movies like Madhumati and Karan Arjun. Some traces of Maine Pyaar Kiya, some Rajnikanth movies, some Jeetendra movies, many 70s ki movies, many actors ka style and lives etc. etc. were present. Thrown in was some amount of nostalgia in order to emotionally connect with the audience. Some quotes were from various sources (The one mentioned 3-4 times was from “The Alchemist” –“ When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire”!) And then all the ingredients need to be mixed in right proportion so as not to have an

Philosophical it may sound, but was just wondering what is the purpose of education? a. Get good jobs, a good status in society so that you can flaunt your status, and leverage that to maximum. b. Get a good jobs, and follow the 'pre-existing' model of things good and bad without questioning and think as you are ordained to by these models. c. Make your own judgments of what is wrong and right, make your own decisions and apply a rational thought process. Or anything else ? I think it is a combination of (a) and (b).