Lectures, Assignments, Tuitions and Blogging

It’s been a month since I last punched the keys with the purpose of publishing a new blog post. As always, I am here to give the reason for my absence - it’s the new term in College. And for those of you who are laughing it off right now, it’s not just one word. As the title of the post already suggests the new term in college brings with it a host of other tasks to keep a teenager busy. There are college lectures till evening, the half hour commute home, then there are the various assignments that need to be completed (and strangely the deadline always seems to be approaching at lightning speed.) Did I mention the coaching classes every Saturday (Five hours of pure torture). In short, I have to make a complete rearrangement of my daily schedule.

Verdict: It took me a total period of one month to get into the groove of the new term and (after I finally did get into groove) to take my lazy ass over to my desk and type out my ‘comeback blog’!!!

But as you will see in my next few posts I haven’t lost contact with the outside world.

So cheer up, there ain’t no reason to fear ‘coz the Teenager is here!!!

P.S. Forgive the ending for being below my usual standards, a clear proof that I am out of touch. I’ll be back to my old ‘blogger’ self after a couple of posts, so nothing to worry about.

To All My Fellow Countrymen...

Pic Courtesy: www.gii.in

The Indian Republic Day is defined as day our constitution was adopted, the day our nation became a republic.

But taking into account the recent issues that our country has been facing, the terror attacks all over the country, the economic slowdown, etc. do you think that the Republic Day should be seen in new context?

Should we assign a completely new (or a better) meaning to this Republic Day?

This Republic Day, I am not the one giving opinions, but am asking for it from you, my readers and fellow Indians.

Jai Hind!

The 'Slumdog' Issue

The past few days have been filled with criticisms and counter criticisms about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. It’s literally been a food fight of sorts!!! While some prefer to go out in the open with their opinions others claim to merely pass on the ‘opinion of the masses’. But I am not gonna debate upon that.

What I want to point out is that, if the film makers of Bollywood claim their right to ‘creative license’ that they deserve, why aren’t they as ready to let others have a bite out of it too.

Agreed (even though I haven’t seen the film yet), SM brings to the forefront the slummy side of the city; it exploits the crime and sleaze in the city and indicates it to be the only things that the city has to offer. Agreed the westerners who have never been to India may be ‘delighted’ to see Mumbai in such light. But this isn’t any different from the fact that thousands of Indians flock to enjoy the crime infested movies by Ram Gopal Varma. Why don’t critics (and the common public) oppose him for exploiting the Mumbai’s crime scenario and projecting it as a city full of crime?

The bitter truth is that we accept anything and everything that comes from a fellow Indian, but it hurts our ego if the same comes from a foreigner. What a shame!!!

Commuting Gonna Get Costlier???

Hindustan Times, January 14th

“The BEST Administration has proposed a hike in the cost of daily, monthly quarterly and yearly passes…The BEST administration has proposed a hike of Rs 5 in the daily ordinary bus pass, Rs 100 in the monthly, Rs 300 in the quarterly and Rs 1000 in the yearly passes…”

Please correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t price rise tend to discourage commuters and drive them to use other means of travel?On a more serious note, how do you expect people to use the public transport more often if there is a price hike in fares? Ironically, many of its buses sport the public service message: Save Fuel, Use Public Transport

“Less than a year after the launch of the season passes scheme, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking wants to cash in on its popularity”

Looks like the BEST is planning to milk the cow or rather, milk the commuters’ wallets!!!

Before I sign off, please do check out the latest poll on the sidebar.

P.S. Wishing all of you and your families a very Happy Makar Sankranti and Pongal too!!!

Oil - The Burning Question

Last week’s Oil Workers Strike has not only been one of the many harrowing experiences in an average Indian’s life but it has also given all of us a morbid glimpse of the possibility of a future without fuel.


While my dad was scouting the neighborhood petrol pumps for a refuel, I sat at home wondering, what if we hadn’t gone to the mall the weekend before, to waste all those hours doing nothing but plain window-shopping. We could have spent same amount of time at home doing something worthwhile and more importantly, saved those couple of litres of fuel.


Why is it that man regrets his actions only after he suffers the consequences even though many a time he is aware of the outcome. Luckily my regret was soon doused by the joy brought to me by the fact that the strike ended the next day.


This was just a temporary crisis. But what will happen when we are faced with the bigger crisis, the oil depletion crisis. Predictions state that oil reserves will never be depleted, but that is only after taking into account the rise in usage of alternative sources of energy and the possibility of finding new ‘future’ fuels.


So the question is – Is India capable of developing alternative/non-conventional sources of energy to such an extent that our dependence on oil becomes negligible?


It would be a great to know your opinions and ideas on the issue.

Pic Courtesy: www.shell.com

Culture Curry

I received this beautiful pictorial comparison of Asian and Western cultures through e-mail. The mail claims that the pictorial representations were designed by a Liu Young, the design is a result of extensive research. The red symbolizes Asian cultural concepts while blue is for the Western culture. The Asians represented here include Indians, Japanese, Thais, Koreans, Indonesian, and Malay.

Have a look and enjoy. Please do not forget to leave a comment.

Opinions

Way Of Life

The Queue

Handling Of Problems

The Boss

Last but not the least, Wishing all of you and your families a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

The Question...

What can we do to help our country combat Terrorism?

I know this must be the most commonest of all the questions that all of you must have come across since the events of the past week. But before you jump to conclusions let me explain.

Enough words have been written, enough candles have been lit. Now, my question seeks to go beyond that. It wants to know what real action can be taken by us, the common people.

Can we only protest, shout slogans, passively and wait for certain lousy people to change things for us??? Can we not do something...anything, take an active part and be the change???

I am not against protests and dharnas for the cause but I want to know if there are any more alternatives to approach the solution, which we the people can implement.

Please do try to answer this question of mine.

Massacre In Mumbai...

In my last post, I had written abut how Mumbai had been humiliated nationally. Ironically, the horrific turn of events that took place in the past few days have shamed the city in front of the whole world.

The city’s security and crisis management measures were put to test and they failed the test…miserably…in front of the whole world. What’s more, politicians made their own mark by showing up (and others by not showing up!!!) at the scene to display their ‘publicity skills’ to the whole world. All in all, a complete humiliation!

The one thing that everyone’s talking of, now that the night mare is over, is the ‘resilience of the city’, ‘spirit of Mumbai’, ‘bounce back attitude of the people’ and what not. What the heck, I myself was admiring this ‘spirit’, however, as of today I will correct myself. I feel that we Mumbaikars we use such phrases to hide our ignorance and taken-for-granted attitude. It is high time we stopped taking such incidents for granted. Ignoring the events that occurred the day before and going back to work (although tense and nervous) is a poor way of expressing sorrow and regret for those who have lost their lives in this mayhem.

Many of us have remained immune from the happenings of the past few days. I myself am a teenager who hardly visits Colaba, Fort or Nariman Point. Hence I cannot feel the agony, pain, sorrow and the triumph felt by the people who were there in the line of fire. All I can do is offer my heartfelt condolences to near and dear ones of all those lost their lives in the attacks and a salute to the martyrs and to those who went out of their way, selflessly to help the victims and rescuers.

One should remember, this was not the war, it was but the first battle.

I wanted to get this post up by morning but my opinions just wouldn’t come in a smooth flow, it was a jumble of incoherent sentences, surely a result of the shock I recieved as I watched and read all about the horrific events. But a big break and a re-edit have cured all that. Please do post your opinions about any related issue.