Tattoo-er’s Ka Naya Daur!!!

Today’s headlines caught me by surprise. ‘City’s Execs, Lawyers, Doctors steal body-art bastion from punks’. I realized that the city’s professionals have gained a completely new and different outlook towards body-art and tattooing in particular. An even more surprising part was that these people were middle aged and this band even included homemakers!

Many reasons can be put forward for this change in trend:
1. These people are now moving towards a more modern ideology and this middle aged; professional junta refuses to be left behind.
2. The idea of inking your skin permanently, with something which is close to your heart proves to be a thrilling experience. Moreover it proves the dedication of that person towards the emotion/ entity to which the tattoo is related. (Hence, these people put in a lot of thought about what they want tattooed onto them)
3. Also, maybe the person finds that going through the painful ordeal gives him/her a sense of victory and accomplishments.
4. And last but not the least, today tattooing is not looked down upon as junkie or hippy stuff anymore in corporate and social circles.

Cheers! To all these guys and gals who remain young at heart through their actions…

All this talk about tattoos has set me thinking…maybe I should get one too…on second thought maybe I’ll take mom and dad along!

Also you can read the Hindustan Times news story online at http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=e2e4d6ce-4031-4cd3-82d1-4e03ac09e8ce

At the Steering Wheel…

Today, I attained one more of the few “teenager’s milestones” in my life…I attended my first driving lesson! It was a tense yet exhilarating experience. The first lesson of course got me familiar with the basics…putting the car into the first gear, slowly releasing the clutch to thrust the car into a gradual glide…and that was it. I know, it was not much, yet it suddenly dawned on me that I had now gained a new degree of freedom, in a few weeks time it would mean an independence from the bus timings and train timetables! Now, I actually knew what the Wright brothers must have experienced on that fateful day!
At the end of the class, the instructor opened the bonnet and explained to me the various automated parts and their functions. After the class got over, when I was passing through the gate of our building and heading towards the staircase, I walked over to the parking space and looked at our little WagonR. A thing that had seemed so lifeless and obvious a few days ago now seemed unique and alive…I was able to appreciate a piece of machine whose components, once started, worked in perfect harmony.
Then, when I reached home and sat on the PC to deliver this beautiful experience I thought…there are so many of such inventions which irrespective of their complexity, are taken so much for granted by the us, that is the Gen-X! We work with these tools all day long and all throughout our lives and yet we do not tend to understand the indispensability and distinctiveness of such machines and tools and their inventors

Farewell...

On July 12th, the senior-most member of the blogging fraternity passed away, she was Olive Riley from Australia who lived till the ripe age of 108.
She had been introduced to the art of blogging in 2007 by a friend. Without going into the further facts, which I am sure everybody has already read in the news, it surprised me…the mere fact that humans are so adaptable. A woman born in 1899, an age in which the radio had just been invented and the computer was still to come, accepted the changes around her, understood the latest trend and took to blogging like fish to water. This proves that we humans, given the proper opportunities and conditions, are able to understand and accept anything new that comes our way.
Not only is this prevalent in Australia or the West, we in India also have quite a number of senior bloggers. So Kudos to Olive Riley and all such bloggers, who are a proof that ‘age’ is not a limitation for a person to learn new technologies and trends.
Before I take your leave, I convey my sincere condolences to the Riley family for the loss of a family member who is an inspiration to the complete Blogosphere.

Please surf over to Olive Rileys blog at http://www.allaboutolive.com.au and http:/worldsoldestblogger.blogspot.com
You can also have a look at the News article on BBC online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7505029.stm

The Day Of Results...

Finally the SSC results have been declared, while some are engulfed by attention from all corners (be it the media for the toppers or the parents and relatives of those who have scored rather well), we should not forget those who go unnoticed, those ‘average’ ones, the rest of the 16 lakh who have scraped through or have managed a fair score.
This year, like the past few years has thrown out into the limelight a few select ‘heroes’ (I should say, the SSC is nothing less than a battle…)

We have the state and divisional toppers who are the ‘heroes of the day’ without doubt.

There is the 20 yr-old Night-school topper Manojkumar Singh, who completed his SSC after missing out 4 years of school (because he was abducted)

We have Manali Naik the girl topper from Handicapped Category as well as overall city topper at second position.

We also get to read about the controversy surrounding the ‘Real’ topper Teena Andrade who received extra marks for participating in state level tournaments pushing her average above the other city toppers. (This claim was ignored by the Board saying the extra marks are for Admission purpose only)

This brings us to the central issue – Is academic excellence everything? While students who spent a whole year rote learning for the exam are awarded and applauded, students like Teena, who I think represent an All-Round Development in a student, are ignored.
Moreover how many students out of these understand and remember what they studied? The scoring pattern of our SSC and HSC exams do not ensure conceptual understanding of the subject and still depend on rote learning as the staple means of study, even after the syllabus has been revised. And this fact has been repeatedly proven by the difference in the marks scored by students in HSC (marks such as 88, 92, 98 Wow!) and the entrance tests (92, 98, 100…out of 200 – Oh! What the hell happened here?!?!)
When will our Education System improve??? I think that is one question that does not have an answer.

Speaking Of Birds and Bees...

It’s been a very long time since I last blogged and I see that I have missed quite a lot of important issues worth writing about…and believe me I had a hard time resisting the urge to reach out to that keyboard and type away. However, like all teenage guys…Responsibilities took up most of my time (translated as exams were approaching and I had a LOT of studying to do…)
Anyways, when superstars like Amitabh Bacchan and Aamir Khan can blog to let out their “frustrations”, then why can’t I?
So then I was reading the news when I came across an article about Sex Education…oops I thought wrong page and swiftly turned the page…then on second thoughts…(with a quick look around me to ensure that no one was watching me…) I turned back and read it carefully. I was quite impressed by it…hats off to the author.
As the reopening dates for schools across the city draw closer…maybe it’s a little too late to do anything to induct Sex Education courses into the syllabi. But don’t we really need to think this out clearly (and by we I mean ALL of us including the Teachers, Principals, Educationists, Parents and Politicians as well…)??? Sex Education isn’t only about the body, the privates and physical relationships…it’s about growing up.
Sex Education has been developed to guide a young teen through his/her transition from childhood to adulthood…it is about how the teen can deal with the problems he/she faces with as little inconvenience to themselves and others around them…it is about how they can cope with their new role in a family, in their community and in the world, it’s about helping them to get through these tough times.
It’s high time our educationists, administrators and our parents just GROW UP about this and stop avoiding it only because the name says Sex. Our future generations need Sex Education for better mental and physical lives… and it is our duty to give it to them

Quotes Uncoded

While I was surfing the net yesterday, I stumbled upon these quotes on teenagers, after spending a while reading them I totally agreed with some of them (a big Hurrah to those who quoted them) and was totally disgusted by a few others, here are a few with the critic’s (that’s me) word…

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth. ~Erma Bombeck

Comments- How rude! I mean we aren’t so careless or bad with driving!!! I mean I am allowed to ride our scooter…well I’m not allowed the car and I have been only allowed to take a learner’s license for the scooter(You see a clever Parent Trick, it ensures that I keep away from highways…) but all that apart I still think we aren’t that bad…ummm…Mom and Dad I hope you’re reading this?!?!


At fourteen you don't need sickness or death for tragedy~Jessamyn West

Comments- Very true. I mean we have sooooo many other problems to consider… like the weekend party, how to get dad to buy the new pair of jeans for you, and how to get close enough to that handsome boy/beautiful girl in college… these are teen troubles…stark reality takes a back seat when you are an adolescent.
(But on a serious note we are not so inconsiderate about losing a loved one or an ailing friend)


Mother Nature is providential. She gives us twelve years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers. ~William Galvin

Comments- A completely false statement, my parents and all the parents of teens out there love their children… of course there are occasional threats of disowning me (from dad) and showing my girlfriends that bathtub photo taken when I was 4 years old (from mom) but that is only when they are really disturbed or annoyed due to me…otherwise they are cool.

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other. ~Laurence J. Peter

Comments- A five star rating for the Quote and three cheers for the Author… I think many of you must have heard your mom and dad quarrelling about exactly from whom you have inherited ‘so and so’ habits, and incidentally these are one of the most annoying habits we have… maybe they forget that we have got something from both!!!

That’s all for today folks… if you find any interesting quotes that you would like to share…send them over on my mail id…and maybe I could feature them here!!! Adios.

“Six dead in campus shooting at Northern Illinois University”

Yesterday, the all the International pages of major newspapers in the metro flashed such (and similar) headlines.
What happened at the University (NIU for short) sent shock waves through America and, I hope, ripples through the rest of the world. Avoiding the details what I wanted to focus on were the reasons which we are not entirely sure of (Net Reports said that the shooter had stopped taking some unspecified medication). However, could the lack of some medicine trigger a person to go on such a rampage and alternatively could a person be depressed to such an extent that he would want to take so many lives apart from his own.
The shooter,as all must be knowing by now, was an ex-student of sociology in the NIU(However I don’t think we can call such a guy a student anymore, hence I call him a shooter) and as someone has rightly pointed out to the irony (on the Wikipedia opinions page), “He was graduating in sociology with emphasis on peace and social justice, well I think he seriously failed to grasp the values” and I agree
First Virginia Tech. and now this, how long are we gonna overlook such incident or label them as the doings of some depressed freak. Is the government of the US deliberately ignoring these incidents? What can we and the government do to prevent such incidents in the future? And on a microscopic level it will be necessary in the near future to study the mentality of such killers. What goes on in such warped minds? What triggers such an attitude in the minds of these ‘students’.These are some of the major questions that need to be answered if we want to prevent any more campus shootouts like these.
And last but not the least, my prayers and thoughts go out to the families of those injured and killed in this incident.

Of Roses And Cupids

Well, I know I’m a bit late, blogging about Valentine’s Day when the day is about to end…but this year I decided to watch out for all those interesting things you get to see(Ahem!!!), hear and read…But since I tried to refrain myself from the ‘seeing’ part and you never get to ‘hear’ anything useful, especially on Valentine’s Day (of course, excluding the mushy poetry and campus rumours of whats-his-name proposing to whats-her-name!) I will present to you with all the things I got to read. The morning was rich, with all the newspapers carrying pictures of cupids and lots and lots of red heart. There was also this interesting article about a research which has brought to light that teenage boys and girls who’re in love tend to overlook other good-looking guys/gals… finally, we have scientific proof to support the popular expression “Love is blind”.
Then there was also this SMS which I received from one of my friends which I feel should be chronicled here –

‘I Love U’
Send this msg to 10 girls n win free
trip to nearest police station in luxury
jeep, Rehna, Khana, body massage
free. Hurry up offer closes 14 feb.

Then there was this other message which I received from the service provider which ran as follows –

Do you have a doubt on ur
Girlfriend/boyfriend.
Do you think that he/she is cheating
On u.
Then please sms DOUBT to ----

Wow, I mean what an occasion to expose your girlfriend or boyfriend, kind of like breaking your own heart with your own hands!!!
Anyways, all-in-all it was an interesting day…Adios, Goodnight and…..
Happy Valentine’s Day